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In 2022 with funding from 
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THE POWER OF PRAYER 
AND 
THE PRAYER OF POWER 


Works by R. A. TORREY 


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Fleming H. Revell Company 


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Copyright, 1924, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 


Printed in the United States of America 


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INTRODUCTION 
Te great need of the Church, today, and of 


human society as a whole, is a genuine, God- 

sent revival. It is either revival or revolution, 
and a revolution that will plunge human society and 
civilization into chaos and utter confusion. It is a time 
of wide-spread apostasy. This may be the last apostasy 
from which we shall be saved by the return of our Lord 
Jesus to this earth to take the reins of government 
into His own thoroughly competent hands. That 
would, of course, be the greatest and most glorious of 
all revivals, and a revival that would never end. 

But we do not know that this zs the final apostasy. 
There have been more thoroughgoing and appalling 
apostasies in the past than this one is at the present 
hour. The apostasy in England in the time of the Wes- 
leys, and in America at the time of Jonathan Edwards, 
was far more complete than the present apostasy is. 
The apostasy in this country at the opening of the nine- 
teenth century was far more appalling, at least as re- 
gards university life, than the apostasy of today. It was 
the revival under the Wesleys and their associates that 
saved the Church and saved civilization in their day. 
Even so thoroughgoing a rationalist as Lecky, the his- 
torian, admits that it was the revival under the Wesleys 
that saved civilization in England. And it was the Great 
Awakening under the leadership of Jonathan Edwards 
and others that saved the Church in America. 

Our sorest need today is a deep, thoroughgoing, 


Spirit-wrought, God-sent revival. Such revivals as far 
5 


6 INTRODUCTION 


as man’s agency is concerned always come in one way— 
by prayer. It was Jonathan Edwards’ Call to Prayer 
that brought the Great Awakening. It was the city 
missionary Landfear’s stirring the Christians of New 
York City to prayer that brought the wondrous revival 
of 1857. It was the prayer of the four humble Christians 
of Kells, and the prayers of others, that brought the 
marvelous Ulster revival of 1859-’60. 

The writer of this present book, at the request of 
D. L. Moody, late in the nineteenth century wrote a 
book entitled How to Pray; and God used that book 
to stir many thousands to pray; and the great work in 
Australia and New Zealand in 1902, extending over to 
England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (the great Welsh 
revival in 1904) and to India and many lands, result- 
ing in the conversion of hundreds of thousands of souls, 
was the direct outcome of the publication of that book. 

The present book is much fuller and more complete 
than How to Pray, and covers the whole subject of 
prayer, not only in its relation to revivals, but in its 
relation to the various departments of Christian life and 
activity. The various chapters are composed largely of 
the addresses on prayer that the writer has given as he 
has gone around the world, preaching the Gospel. They 
have grown through the twenty-two years and more 
that he has been engaged in this work. In their present 
completed form they were delivered to his own people 
in the Church of the Open Door, Los Angeles, and they 
were all heard over the radio by perhaps a hundred 
thousand people (some say far more) each week in 
places from one mile to three thousand miles away, who 
were “listening in” Sunday after Sunday, in the autumn 
and winter and spring of 1923 and 1924. 


INTRODUCTION 7 


As the author writes this preface he is in the midst 
of a revival in Winnipeg, Canada, where last night five 
thousand people crowded into the rink that only seats 
four thousand one hundred, and many were unable to 
get in. And very many men, women and children made 
a public confession of having accepted Christ in that hour. 
Shall we have a revival of great power extending over 
many lands? I believe we shall. God grant that this 
book may hasten it! 

R. A. Torrey. 





II. 


Contents 


THE PowER OF PRAYER . i ¢ A 

Wuat DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 
WitL DEFINITE AND DETERMINED 
PRAYER PRODUCE? . : ‘ a DOS 8) 


Wuat PRAYER Can Do FoR CHURCHES, AND 
FOR THE NATION AND FOR ALL NaTIONS 50 


How To Pray So As To Get Wuat You Ask 69 


Wuo Can Pray So As to Get WHAT THEY 


ASR PUN a ohne Maid kia. eea Ment ae md 
PRAYING IN THE NAME OF Jesus CHRIST Nad Bs 
Prey PRAVER OF PAITH iy itino i inte Gate AO 


Prayvinc THROUGH AND PrayING IN THE 
Hoty GHOST. . A k . 167 


HINDRANCE TO PRAYER . : A : . 189 


PREVAILING PRAYER AND REAL REVIVAL . 224 


aie 


hi 





I 
THE POWER OF PRAYER 


“Ve have not, because ye ask not.’—JAMES 4: 2. 


short words. Six of the seven words are mono- 

syllables, and the remaining word has but two 
syllables and is one of the most familiar and most easily 
understood words in the English language. Yet there 
is so much in these seven short, simple words that they 
have transformed many a life and brought many an 
inefficient worker into a place of great power. 

I spoke on these seven words some years ago at a 
Bible conference in Central New York. Some months 
after the conference I received a letter from the man 
who had presided at the conference, one of the best known 
ministers of the Gospel in America. He wrote me, “I 
have been unable to get away from the seven words upon 
which you spoke at Lake Keuka, they have been with 
me day and night. They have transformed my ideas, 
transformed my methods, transformed my life, and, I 
think I have a right to add, transformed my ministry.” 
The man who wrote those words has since been the 
pastor of what is probably the most widely-known of 
any evangelical church in the world. I trust that the 
words may sink into some of your hearts today as they 
did into his on that occasion, and that some of you will 


be able to say in future months and years, “I have been 
ll 


| BRING you a message from God contained in seven 


12 THE POWER OF PRAYER 


unable to get away from those seven words, they have 
been with me day and night. They have transformed 
my ideas, transformed my methods, transformed my 
life, and transformed my service for God.” 

You will find these seven words in Jas. 4:2, the seven 
closing words of the verse, “ Ye have not, BECAUSE YE 
ASK NOT.” 

These seven words contain the secret of the poverty 
and powerlessness of the average Christian, of the aver- 
age minister, and of the average Church. “ Why is it,” 
many a Christian is asking, “that I make such poor 
progress in my Christian life? Why do I have so little 
victory over sin? Why do I win so few souls to Christ? 
Why do I grow so slowly into the likeness of my Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ?”’ And God answers in the 
words of our text—‘ Neglect of prayer. You have not, 
because you ask not.” 

“Why is it,” many a minister is asking, “that I see 
so little fruit from my ministry? Why are there so few 
conversions? Why does my church grow so slowly? 
Why are the members of my church so little helped by 
my ministry, and built up so little in Christian knowledge 
and life?” And again God replies: ‘“‘ Neglect of prayer. 
You have not, because you ask not.” 

“Why is it,” both ministers and churches are asking, 
“that the Church of Jesus Christ is making such slow 
progress in the world today? Why does it make so 
little headway against sin, against unbelief, against error 
in all its forms? Why does it have so little victory over 
the world, the flesh, and the Devil? Why is the average 
Church member living on such a low plane of Christian 
living? Why does the Lord Jesus Christ get so little 
honour from the state of the Church today?” And, 


THE POWER OF PRAYER 15 


again, God replies: “ Neglect of prayer. You have not, 
because you ask not.” 

When we read the only inspired church history 
that was ever written, the history of the Church 
in the days of the Apostles as it is recorded by Luke 
(under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) in the Acts 
of the Apostles, what do we find? We find a story of 
constant victory, a story of perpetual progress. We 
read, for example, such statements as this in Acts 2:47: 
“The Lord added to the church daily those that were 
being saved;” and such statements as this in Acts 4:4: 
“Many of them which heard the Word believed; and 
the number of the men came to be about five thousand,” 
and such statements as this in Acts 5:14: “And be- 
lievers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both 
of men and women.” 

And such statements as this in Acts 6:7: “And the 
Word of God increased; and the number of the disciples 
multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly; and a great com- 
pany of the priests were obedient to the faith.” 

And so we go on, chapter after chapter, through the 
twenty-eight chapters of the Book, and in every one of 
the twenty-seven chapters after the first we find the 
same note of victory. I once went through the Acts of 

/ the Apostles marking the note of victory in every chapter, 
and without one single exception the triumphant shout 
of victory rang out in every chapter. How different the 

history of the Church as here recorded is from the history 
of the Church of Jesus Christ today. Take for example, 
that first statement, “ The Lord added to the Church 
daily (that is every day, or, as the Revised Version puts 
it, ‘day by day’) those that were being saved.” Why, 
nowadays if we have a revival once a year with an 


14 THE POWER OF PRAYER 


accession of fifty or sixty members and spend all the 
rest of the year slipping back to where we were before, 
we think we are doing pretty well. But in those days 
there was a revival all the time and accessions every day 
of those who not only “hit the trail” but “ were (really) 
being saved.” 

Why this difference between the early Church and 
the Church of Jesus Christ to-day? Someone will answer, 
“Because there is so much opposition today.’ Ah, 
but there was opposition in those days; most bitter, most 
determined, most relentless opposition, opposition in com- 
parison with which that which you and I met today is 
but child’s play. But the early Church went right on 
beating down all opposition, surmounting every obstacle, 
conquering every foe, always victorious, right on without 
a setback from Jerusalem to Rome, in the face of the 
most firmly entrenched and most mighty heathenism and 
unbelief. I repeat the question—“ Why was it?” If 
you will turn to the chapters from which I have already 
quoted, you will get your answer. 

Turn, for example, to the first chapter from which I 
quoted, Acts 2, and read the 42d verse: “And they 
continued stedfastly in the Apostles’ teaching and fel- 
lowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.” That 
is a picture very brief but very suggestive of the early 
Church. It was A Prayinc CHurcH. It was a Church 
in which they prayed not merely occasionally, but where 
they all “continued stedfastly . .. . m the prayers.” 
They all prayed, not a select few, but the whole mem- 
bership of the Church; and all prayed continuously 
with stedfast determination. “They gave themselves to 
prayer,’ as the same Greek word is translated in Acts 
6:4. Now turn to the last chapter from which I 


THE POWER OF PRAYER 15 


quoted, the sixth chapter, verse four, and you will get 
the rest of your answer. “We will give ourselves con- 
-tinually to prayer.” That is a picture of the Apostolic 
ministry, it was a praying ministry, and a ministry that 
“gave themselves continually to prayer,” or, to translate 
that Greek word as it is translated in the former passage 
(Acts 2:42), “ They continued stedfastly in prayer.” A 
PRAYING CHURCH AND A PRAYING Ministry! Ah, such 
a Church and such a ministry can achieve anything that 
ought to be achieved. It will go steadily on beating down 
all opposition, surmounting every obstacle, conquering 
every foe, just as much today as it did in the days of 
the Apostles. 

There is nothing else in which the Church of today, 
and the ministry of today, or, to be more explicit, in 
which you and I, have departed more notably and more 
lamentably from apostolic precedent than in this matter 
of prayer. We do not live in a praying age. A very 
considerable proportion of the membership of our evan- 
gelical churches today do not believe even theoretically in 
prayer, that is, they do not believe in prayer as bringing 
anything to pass that would not have come to pass even 
if they had not prayed. They believe in prayer as having 
a beneficial “reflex influence,’ that is, as benefiting the 
person who prays, a sort of lifting yourself up by your , 
spiritual boot-straps, but as for prayer bringing anything 
to pass that would not have come to pass if we had not 
prayed, they do not believe in it and many of them 
frankly say so, and even some of our “ modern ministers” 
Say so. 

And with that part of our church membership that does 
believe in prayer theoretically—and thank God I believe 
it is still the vast majority in our evangelical churches— 


16 THE POWER OF PRAYER 


even they do not make the use of this mighty instrument 
that God has put into our hands that one would naturally 
expect. As I said, we do not live in a praying age. We 
live in an age of hustle and bustle, of man’s efforts and 
man’s determination, of-man’s confidence in himself and 
in his own power to achieve things, an age of human 
organization, and human machinery, and human push, 
and human scheming, and human achievement; which in 
the things of God means no real achievement at all. I 
think it would be perfectly safe to say, that the Church 
of Christ was never in all its history so fully and so 
skillfully and so thoroughly and so perfectly organized 
as it is today. Our machinery is wonderful, it is just 
perfect, but alas it is machinery without power; and 
when things do not go right, instead of going to the real 
source of our failure, our neglect to depend upon God 
and to look to God for power, we look around to see if 
there is not some new organization we can get up, some 
new wheel that we can add to our machinery. We have 
all together too many wheels already. What we need 
is not so much some new organization, some new wheel, 
but “the Spirit of the living creature in the wheels” we 
already possess. 

I believe that the Devil atande and looks at the Church 
today and laughs in his sleeve, as he sees how its mem- 
bers depend upon their own scheming and powers of 
organization and skillfully devised machinery. “Ha, 
ha,” he laughs, “you may have your Y. M. C. A.’s, and 
VOW Als, and your WW Cais andi lV ura 
C. E’s, and By Yu PinOvs;)and your! Boy) Scouts, tana 
your costly church-edifices, and your fifty-thousand dollar 
church organs, and your brilliant university-bred preach- 
ers, and your high-priced choirs, and your gifted so- 


THE POWER OF PRAYER 17 


pranos, and altos, and tenors, and basses, and your 
wonderful quartets, your immense Men’s Bible Classes, 
yes, and your Bible Conferences, and your Bible Insti- 
tutes, and your special evangelistic services, all you please 
of them, it does not in the least trouble me, if you will 
only leave out of them the power of the Lord God Al- 
mighty sought and obtained by the earnest, persistent, 
believing prayer that will not take ‘no’ for an answer.” 
But when the Devil sees a man or woman who really 
believes in prayer, who knows how ‘to pray, and who 
really does pray, and above all, when he sees a whole 
church on its face before God in prayer, “he trembles ” 
as much as he ever did, for he knows that his day in 
that church or community is at an end. 

Prayer has as much power today, when men and women 
are themselves on praying ground and meeting the con- 
ditions of prevailing prayer, as it ever has had. God 
has not changed; and His ear is just as quick to hear 
the voice of real prayer, and His hand is just as long 
and strong to save, as it ever was. “ Behold, the Lord’s 
hand is not shortened, that it cannot save: neither his 
ear heavy, that it cannot hear.” But “our iniquities ” 
may “have separated between us and our God, and our 
sins” may “ have hid his face from us, that he will not 
hear.’ (Is. 59:1, 2.) Prayer is the key that unlocks 
all the storehouses of God’s infinite grace and power. All 
that God is, and all that God has, is at the disposal of 
prayer. But we must use the key. Prayer can do any- 
thing that God can do, and as God can do anything, prayer 
is omnipotent. No one can stand against the man who 
knows how to pray and who meets all the conditions of 
prevailing prayer and who really prays. “ The Lord God 
Omnipotent ” works for him and works through him. 


18 THE POWER OF PRAYER 


I. Praver Witt Promote Our PERSONAL HOLINESS AS 
NotHinG Evse Excerpt THE STUDY OF THE 
Worp oF Gop 


But what, specifically, will prayer do? We have been 
dealing in generalities, let us come down to the definite 
and specific. The Word of God very plainly answers 
the question. 

In the first place, prayer will promote our personal 
piety, our individual holiness, our individual growth into 
the likeness of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as 
almost nothing else, as nothing else but the study of the 
Word of God; and these two things, prayer and study 
of the Word of God, always go hand-in-hand, for there 
is not true prayer without study of the Word of God, and 
there is no true study of the Word of God without prayer. 

Other things being equal, your growth and mine into 
the likeness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will 
be in exact proportion to the time and to the heart we 
put into prayer. Please note exactly what I say: “ Your 
growth and mine into the likeness of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ will be in exact proportion to the 
time and to the heart we put into prayer.” I put it in 
that way because there are many who put a great deal 
of time into praying but they put so little heart into their 
praying that they do very little praying in the long time 
they spend at it; while there are others who perhaps may 
not put so much time into praying but who put so much 
heart into their praying, that they accomplish vastly more 
by their praying in a short time than the others accomplish 
by their praying a long time. God Himself has told us 
in Jer. 29:13: “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when 
ye shall search for me with all your heart.” 


G 


THE POWER OF PRAYER 19 


We are told in the Word of God in Eph. 1: 3, that God 
hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heav- 
enly places in Christ.” That is to say, that Jesus Christ 
by His atoning death and by His resurrection and ascen- 
sion to the right hand of the Father, has obtained for 
every believer in Jesus Christ every possible spiritual 
blessing. There is no spiritual blessing that any believer 
enjoys that may not be yours. It belongs to you now, 
Christ purchased it by His atoning death and God has 
provided it in Him. It is there for you; but it is your 
part to claim it, to put out your hand and take it, and 
God’s appointed way of claiming blessings, or putting out 
your hand and appropriating to yourself the blessings 
that are procured for you by the atoning death of Jesus 
Christ, is by prayer. Prayer is the hand that takes to 
ourselves the blessings that God has already provided 
in His Son. 

Go through your Bible and you will find it definitely 
stated that every conceivable spiritual blessing is obtained 
by prayer. For example, it is in answer to prayer, as we 
learn from Psalm 139: 23, 24, that God searches us and 
knows our hearts, tries us and knows our thoughts, brings 
to light the sin that there is in us and delivers us from it. 
It is in answer to prayer, as we learn from Psalm 19: 12, 
13, that we are cleansed from secret faults and God keeps 
us back from presumptuous sins. It is in answer to 
prayer, as we learn from the 14th verse of the same 
Psalm, that “the words of our mouth and the medita- 
tions of our heart are made acceptable in God’s sight.” 
It is in answer to prayer, as we learn from the 25th 
Psalm, verses 4 and 5, that God shows us His ways and 
teaches us His path, and guides us in His truth. It is 
in answer to prayer, as we learn from the prayer our 


20 THE POWER OF PRAYER 


Lord Himself taught us, that we are kept from tempta- 
tion and delivered from the power of the wicked one. 
(Matt. 6:13 R. V.) It is in answer to prayer, as we 
learn from Luke 11:13, that God gives us His Holy 
Spirit, and so we might go on through the whole catalogue 
of spiritual blessings and we would find that every one 
is obtained by asking for it. Indeed, our Lord Himself 
has said in Matt. 7:11: “If ye then, being evil, know 
how to give good gifts to your children, how much more 
shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things 
to them that ask him.” 

One of the most instructive and suggestive passages in 
the entire Bible as showing the mighty power of prayer 
to transform us into the likeness of our Lord Jesus 
Himself, is found in II Cor. 3:18: “But we all, with 
unveiled face beholding as in a mirror [The English 
Revision reads better ‘ reflecting as a mirror’| the glory 
of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from 
glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.” The 
thought is this, that the Lord is the Sun, you and I are 
mirrors, and just as a mischievous boy on a bright sun- 
shiny day will catch the rays of the sun in a piece of 
broken looking-glass and reflect them into your eyes and 
mine with almost blinding power, so we as mirrors, 
when we commune with God, catch the rays of His moral 
glory and reflect them out upon the world “from glory 
to glory,” that is, each new time we commune with Him 
we catch something new of His glory and reflect it out 
upon the world. You remember the story of Moses, not 
“folk lore”? as some would have us believe, but actual 
history, how he went up into the Mount and tarried alone 
for forty days with God, gazing upon that ineffable glory, 
and caught so much of the glory in his own face that 


THE POWER OF PRAYER 21 


when he came down from the Mount, though he himself 
knew it not, his face so shone that he had to draw a 
veil over it to hide the blinding glory of it from his 
fellow Israelites. Even so we, going up into the Mount 
of prayer, away from the world, alone with God, and 
remaining long alone with God, catch the rays of His 
glory so that when we come down to our fellow men not 
so much our faces shine (though I do believe that some- 
times even our faces shine), but our characters, with 
the glory that we have been beholding, and we reflect out 
upon the world the moral glory of God from “ glory to 
glory,” each new time of communion with Him catching 
something new of His glory to reflect out upon the world. 
Oh, here is the secret of becoming much like God, re- 
maining long alone with God. If you won’t stay long 
with Him, you won’t be much like Him. 

One of the most remarkable men in Scotland’s history 
was John Welch, son-in-law of John Knox, the great 
Scotch reformer ; not so well known as his famous father- 
in-law but in some respects a far more remarkable man 
than John Knox himself. Most people have the idea that 
it was John Knox who prayed: “Give me Scotland or 
I die.” It was not, it was John Welch, his son-in-law. 
John Welch put it on record before he died, that he 
counted that day ill-spent that he did not put seven or 
eight hours into secret prayer; and when John Welch 
came to die an old Scotchman who had known him from 
his boyhood said of John Welch, “ John Welch was a 
type of Christ.” Of course that was an inaccurate use 
of language, but what the old Scotchman meant was, 
that Jesus Christ had stamped the impress of His char- 
acter upon John Welch. When had Jesus Christ done 
it? In those seven or eight hours of daily communion 


22 THE POWER OF PRAYER 


with Himself. I do not suppose that God has called 
many of us, if any of us, to put seven or eight hours a 
day into prayer, but I am confident God has called most 
of us, if not everyone of us, to put more time into prayer 
than we now do. That is one of the great secrets of 
holiness ; indeed, the only way in which we can become 
really holy and continue holy. 

Some years ago we often sang a hymn, Take Time to be 
Holy. I wish we sang it more in these days. It takes 
time to be holy, one cannot be holy in a hurry; and 
much of the time that it takes to be holy must go into 
secret prayer. Some people express surprise that profess- 
ing Christians today are so little like their Lord, but 
when I stop to think how little time the average Christian 
today puts into secret prayer the thing that astonishes 
me is, not that we are so little like the Lord, but that 
we are as much like the Lord as we are, when we take 
so little time for secret prayer. 


Il. Praver WiLL Brinc THE Power or Gop INTO 
Our WorxK 


But not only will prayer promote as almost nothing 
else our personal holiness, but Prayer will also bring the 
power of God into our work. We read in Isaiah 40: 31: 
“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength ; 
they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, 
and not be weary; and they shall walk [plod right along 
day after day, which is far harder than running or fly- 
ing], and not faint.” 

It is the privilege of every child of God to have the 
power of God in their service. And the verse just quoted 
tells us how to obtain it, and that is by “ waiting upon 
the Lord.” Sometimes you will hear people stand up in 


THE POWER OF PRAYER 23 


meeting, not so frequently perhaps in these days as in 
former days, and say: “I am trying to serve God in 
my poor, weak way.” Well, if you are trying to serve 
God in your poor, weak way, quit it: your duty is to serve 
God in Hts strong triumphant way. But you say I have 
no natural ability; then get supernatural ability. The 
religion of Jesus Christ is a supernatural religion from 
start to finish, and we should live our lives in super- 
natural power, the power of God through Jesus Christ, 
and we should perform our service with supernatural 
power, the power of God ministered by the Holy Spirit 
through Jesus Christ. You say, “I have no natural 
gifts.’ Then get supernatural gifts. The Holy Spirit 
is promised to every believer in order that he may obtain 
the supernatural gifts which qualify him for the par- 
ticular service to which God calls him. “He” (the Holy 
Spirit), “ divideth to each one (that is, to each and every 
believer) severally even as He will.” (I Cor.12:11.) It 
is ours to have the power of God, if we will only seek 
it by prayer, in any and every line of service to which 
God calls us. 

Are you a mother or a father? Do you wish power 
from God to bring your own children up in the “ nur- 
ture and admonition of the Lord?” God commands you 
to do it, and especially commands the father to do it. 
God says in Eph. 6:4: “Ye fathers, provoke not your 
children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and 
admonition of the Lord.” 

Now God never commands the impossible, and as He 
commands us fathers, and the mothers also, to bring our 
children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord 
it is possible for us to doit. If any one of your children 
is not saved, the first blame lies at your own door. Paul 


24 THE POWER OF PRAYER 


said to the jailer in Philippi: ‘‘ Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” (Acts 
16: 31.) 

Yes; it is the solemn duty of every father and mother 
to have every one of thewr children saved. But we can 
never accomplish it unless we are much in prayer to God 
for power to do it. In my first pastorate I had as a 
member of my church a most excellent Christian woman, 
but she had a little boy of six who was one of the most 
incorrigible youngsters I ever knew in my life. He was 
the terror of the community. The most difficult boy, I 
think, I ever knew. One Sunday at the close of the 
morning service his mother came to me and said: “ You 
know ”’ (calling her boy by his first name). ‘“ Yes,” 
I replied, “I know him.” Everybody in town knew him. 
Then she said, “ You know he is not a very good boy.” 
“Yes,” I replied, “I know he is not a very good boy.” 
Indeed, that was a decidedly euphemistic way of putting 
it; in point of fact he was the terror of the neighbour- 
hood. Then this heavy-hearted mother said, “ What shall 
I do?” I replied: “Have you ever tried prayer?” 
‘« Vithy,’? she) said,“ of course I prey.” * Oh, \Togaid, 
“that is not what I mean. Have you ever asked God 
definitely to regenerate your boy and expected Him to 
do it?” “I do not think I have ever been as definite 
as that.” “Well,” I said, “you go right home and be 
just as definite as that.” She went home, she was just 
as definite as that; and I think it was from that very 
day, certainly from that week, that boy was a transformed 
boy and grew up into fine young manhood. 

Oh, mothers and fathers, it is your privilege to have 
every one of your children saved. But it costs some- 
thing to have them saved. It costs your spending much 





THE POWER OF PRAYER 25 


time alone with God, to be much in prayer, and it costs 
also your making those sacrifices, and straightening out 
those things in your life that are wrong, it costs the ful- 
filling the conditions of prevailing prayer. And if any 
of you have unsaved children, when you go home today 
get alone with God and ask God to show you what it is 
in your own life that is responsible for the present con- 
dition of your children, and straighten it out at once and 
then get down alone before God and hold on to Him in 
earnest prayer for the definite conversion of each one of 
your children, and do not rest until, by prayer and by 
your putting forth every effort, you know beyond ques- 
tion that every one of your children is definitely and 
positively converted and born again. 

Are you a Sunday School teacher? Do you wish to 
see every one of your Sunday School scholars converted? 
That is primarily what you are a Sunday School teacher 
for, not merely to teach Bible geography and Bible 
history, or even Bible doctrine, but to get the scholars 
in your class one and all saved. Do you want power 
from on high to enable you to save them? Ask God 
for it. : 

When Mr. Alexander and I were holding meetings in 
Sydney, Australia, the meetings were held in the Town 
Hall which seated about five thousand people. But the 
crowds were so great that some days we had to divide 
the crowds and have women only in the afternoon, and 
men only at night. One Sunday afternoon the Sydney 
town hall was packed with women. When I gave out 
the invitation for all who would accept Jesus Christ as 
their personal Saviour, and surrender to Him as their 
Lord and Master, and begin to confess Him as such 
before the world, and strive to live from this time on to 


26 THE POWER OF PRAYER 


please Him in every way from day to day, over on my left 
a whole row of young women of, I should say, about 
twenty years of age, arose to their feet, eighteen in all. 
As I saw them stand side by side I said to myself, “ That 
is someone’s Bible class.” They afterwards came down 
forward with the other women who came to make a public 
confession of their acceptance of Jesus Christ. When 
the meeting was over a young lady came to me, her face 
wreathed in smiles, and she said, “ That is my Bible class. 
I have been praying for their conversion and every one 
of them has accepted Jesus Christ today.” 

When we were holding meetings in Bristol, England, a 
prominent manufacturer in Exeter had a Bible class in 
that city, of twenty-two men. He invited all of them 
to go to Bristol with him and hear me preach. Twenty- 
one of them consented to go. At that meeting twenty 
of them accepted Christ. The twenty-first accepted Christ 
in the train on the way home, and then they all, on their 
return, gathered around the remaining one who would 
not go, and he also accepted Christ. That man was pray- 
ing for the conversion of the members of his class and 
was willing to make the sacrifices necessary to get his 
prayers answered. What a revival we would have here 
in this city if every Sunday School teacher would go to 
praying the way they ought for the conversion of every 
scholar in his or her class! 

Are you in more public work, a preacher perhaps, or 
speaking from the public platform? Do you long fort 
power in that work? Ask for it, I shall never forget a 
scene I witnessed many years ago in the city of Boston. 
It was at the International Christian Workers’ Conven- 
tien which was held in the old Tremont Temple, seating 
thirty-five hundred people. It was my privilege to pre- 


THE POWER OF PRAYER 27 


side at the Convention. On a Saturday morning at 
eleven o'clock the Tremont Temple was packed to its 
utmost capacity, every seat was taken, every inch of 
standing room where men and women were allowed to 
stand was taken, and multitudes outside still clamoring 
for admission. The audience was as fine in its quality 
as it was large in its numbers. As I looked back of me 
on the platform, it seemed as if every leading minister 
and clergyman not only of Boston but of New England 
was on that platform. As I looked down in front of 
me I saw seated there the leaders in not only the church 
life but in the social and commercial and political life 
of Boston and the surrounding country. | 

I arose to announce the next speaker on the program; 
and my heart sank, for the next speaker was a woman. 
In those days I had a prejudice against any woman speak- 
ing in public under any circumstances. But this par- 
ticular woman was a professing Christian, and a Pres- 
byterian at that (and I suppose that is orthodox enough 
for most of us), but she had been what we call a “ worldly 
Christian,’ a dancing, card-playing, theatre-going, low- 
necked dress Christian. She had had, however, an experi- 
ence of which I had not heard. One night, sitting in 
their beautiful home in New York City, for she was a 
woman of wealth, she turned to her husband as he sat 
reading the evening paper, and said: “ Husband, I hear 
they are doing a good work down at Jerry McAuley’s 
Mission at 316 Water Street. Let us go down and help 
them.” He was a man of very much the same type as 
she was a woman, kind-hearted, generous, but very much 
of a worldling. He laid aside his paper and said: “ Well, 
let us go.” They put on their wraps and started for 316 
Water Street. 


28 THE POWER OF PRAYER > 


When they got there they found the Mission Hall very 
full and took seats down back by the door. As they sat 
there and listened to one after another of those rescued 
men, they were filled with new interest, a new world 
seemed opening to thent; and at last the woman turned 
to her husband and whispered: “I guess they will have 
to help us instead of our helping them. They’ve got 
something we haven’t.” And when the invitation was 
given out this finely-dressed, cultured gentleman and his 
wife went forward and knelt down at the altar in the 
sawdust along with the drunken “ bums” and other out- 
casts of Water Street; and they got real salvation. 

But of this I knew nothing. I only knew the type of 
woman she had been, and when I saw her name on the 
program, as I said, my heart sank and I thought, “ What 
a waste of a magnificent opportunity, here is this won- 
derful audience and only this woman to speak to them.” 
But I had no authority to change the program, my 
business was simply to announce it. And summoning all 
the courtesy I could command under the circumstances, I 
introduced this lady, and then sank into the Chairman’s 
seat and buried my face in my hands and began to pray 
to God to save us from disaster. Some years afterward 
I was in the City of Atlanta, and one of the leading Chris- 
tian workers of that city, who had been at the Boston 
Convention, came to me laughing and said: “TI shall 
never forget how you introduced Mrs. at the Boston 
Convention, and then dropped into your chair and covered 
your face with your hands as if you had done something 
you were ashamed of.” 

Well, I had. But as I said, I began to pray. Ina 
little while I took my face out of my hands and began 
to watch as well as pray. Every one of those thirty-five 





THE POWER OF PRAYER 29 


hundred pairs of eyes were riveted on that little woman 
as She stood there and spoke. Soon I saw tears come 
into eyes that were unaccustomed to weeping, and I saw 
men and women taking out their handkerchiefs and at 
first trying to pretend they were not weeping, and then, 
throwing all disguise to the winds, I saw them bow their 
heads on the backs of the seats in front of them and sob 
as if their hearts would break. And before that wonder- 
ful address was over that whole audience was swept by 
the power of that woman’s words as the trees of our 
Western forests are sometimes swept by the cyclone. 

This was Saturday morning. The following Monday 
morning Dr. Broadbeck, at that time pastor of the leading 
Methodist Church in Boston, came to me and said with 
a choking voice, “ Brother Torrey, I could not open my 
mouth to speak to my own people in my own church 
yesterday morning without bursting into tears as I thought 
of that wonderful scene we witnessed here on Saturday 
morning.’ When that wonderful address was over, some 
of us went to this woman and said to her: “God has 
wonderfully used you this morning.” “Oh,” she replied, 
“would you like to know the secret of it? Last night 
as I thought of the great throng that would fill the Tre- 
mont Temple this morning, and of my own inexperience 
in public address, I spent the whole night on my face 
before God in prayer.” Oh, men and women, if we 
would spend more nights before God on our faces in 
prayer, there would be more days of power when we 
faced our congregations! 


II 


WHAT DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 
WILL DEFINITE AND DETERMINED 
PRAYER PRODUCE? 


“The supplication of a righteous man cvatleth much 
in its working.’—JAMES 5:16 R. V. 


Desirable Results Will Definite and Determined 

Prayer Produce?” You will find the text on 
which all we have to say is based in Jas. 5:16: “ The 
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth 
much.” These words of God set forth prayer as a 
working force, as a something that brings things to pass 
that would not come to pass if it were not for prayer. 
This comes out even more clearly in the Revised Version. 
“ The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its 
working.” While this translation means practically the 
same thing as the Authorized, it is not only a more ac- 
curate translation but it is also a more suggestive one. It 
tells us that prayer is something that works, and that it 
availeth much because of its “ working.”’ Yes, prayer cer- 
tainly does work. A contrast is often drawn by many be- 
tween praying and working. I knew a man once who was 
an officer in a Sunday School in Brooklyn, and the Super- 
intendent one day called on him to pray. He arose and 
said, “ I am not a praying Christian, 1 am a working Chris- 


tian.” But praying is working. It is the most effective 
30 


Mo subject this morning is, “ What Definite and 


DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 31 


work that anyone can do, that is, we can often bring more 
to pass by praying than we can by any other form 
of effort we might put forth, Furthermore, prayer, if 
it be real prayer, the kind of prayer that avails much 
with God, oftentimes is harder work than any other kind 
of effort; it takes more out of one than any other kind 
of effort. When Mr. Alexander and I went to Liverpool 
for our second series of meetings there, Rev. Musgrave 
Brown, Vicar of one of the leading Church of England 
parishes in the city, was chairman of our committee. His 
health gave out the very first week of the meetings and 
he was ordered to Switzerland by his medical man. Soon 
after reaching Switzerland he wrote me saying, “I hoped 
to be of so much help in these meetings and anticipated 
so much from them, but here I am, way off here in 
Switzerland, ordered here by my medical man, and now 
all I can do is to pray.” Then he added, “ But after all 
that is the greatest thing anyone can do, is it not?’”’ Then 
he still further added, “And real prayer takes more out 
of one than anything else, does it not?” Yes, it often 
does. Real praying is a costly exercise but it pays far 
more than it costs. It is not easy work but it is the most 
profitable of all work. We can accomplish more by time 
and strength put into prayer than we can by putting the 
same amount of time and strength into anything else. 
You will notice that in the Revised Version the word 
“supplication” is substituted for the word “ prayer.” 
The reason for that is this: there are a number of Greek 
words which are translated “ prayer” in the Authorized 
Version and they have different shades of meaning, some- 
times very significant shades of meaning, and the Greek 
word which the Authorized Version translates “ prayer ” 
in this passage is a very significant word: i sets forth 


32 DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 


prayer as the definite expression of a deeply felt need. 
Indeed, the primary meaning of the word is “need.” 
Therefore, our text teaches that, Definite and Determined 
Prayer to God “availeth much.” 

The Greek word translated “availeth” is also a very 
expressive and significant word. Its primary meaning is 
“to be strong,” “to have power [or force],” and then 
“to exercise power,” so the thought of our text is, that 
definite and determined prayer exerts much power in tis 
working, that it achieves great things. Then in the verses 
that immediately follow we are told of the astounding 
things Elijah brought to pass by his prayers, how he 
shut up heaven for three years and six months so that 
there was not a drop of rain for that long period; and 
the Old Testament account tells us that not only was 
there not a drop of rain, but furthermore, not a drop of 
dew (I Kings 17:2). And then when the proper time 
had come Elijah “ prayed again, and the heaven gave 
rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.” Or, as 
Mr. Moody used to put it in his graphic way, “ Elijah 
locked up heaven for three years and six months and 
put the key in his pocket.” Now there is no particular 
need that you or I know of why we should shut up 
heaven for three years and six months, or, for that mat- 
ter, for three days; but there is a most imperative need 
that we bring some other things to pass and there is no 
other way in which we can bring them to pass than by 
praying for them, by definite and determined prayer. 
So we are brought face to face with the tremendously 
important question: What are Some of the Definite 
Things that are Greatly to be Desired at the Present Time 
that Prayer will Bring to Pass? 

We saw in our previous chapter two immeasurably 


é 


DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 33 


important things that prayer will accomplish. First, that 
it will promote our own personal piety, our individual 
holiness, our individual growth into the likeness of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Second, that it will bring 
the power of God into our work. This morning we shall 
discover froma study of the Bible some other exceedingly 
important things that the right sort of praying will bring 
to pass. 
I. Prayer WILL Save OTHERS 


Turn to the first Epistle of John, chapter five, verse 
sixteen: “If any man see his brother sinning a sin not 
unto death, he shall ask, and God will give him life 
for them that sin not unto death.” 

This is one of the most remarkable statements in the 
whole Bible on the subject of prayer and its amazing 
power. The statement of this verse is not only most 
remarkable, it is also most cheering and most gladdening. 
God here tells us that prayer will not only bring blessing 
to the one who prays, but that it will bring the greatest 
of all blessings, even the blessing of eternal life, to 
others, to those for whom we pray. It tells us that if 
we see another sinning a sin not unto death, that is, com- 
mitting sin, any sin except the one unpardonable sin, 
we can go to God in prayer for that one and that in 
answer to our prayer God will give life, eternal life, to 
this one for whom we have prayed. This passage, of 
course, is often taken to teach divine healing, and inter- 
preted as if the thought were that the “life ” here spoken 
of was mere natural or physical life, and that by 
our prayer we could get physical life for one who was 
sick because of his sinning but who had not sinned the 
sin which must eventuate in his being removed from this 


od 


34 DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 


world. But this is not only an incorrect but an impossible 
interpretation. The Apostle John in his writings uses two 
different Greek words for “life.” One of them signifies 
physical life, the other signifies spiritual or eternal life; 
it is never used of natural life, merely physical life. I 
have looked up every passage where John uses this latter 
word in his Gospel, in his Epistles and in the Book of 
‘Revelation, and not in one single instance does he use 
the word used in this verse of anything but spiritual or 
eternal life. This is the word John uses in this pas- 
sage, and the thought of this passage then is, not that 
one may obtain physical life, deliverance from natural 
death, by praying for one who has sinned, but that he 
can obtain eternal life, salvation in its fullest sense, for 
the one who has sinned but has not sinned unto death. 
It is a wonderful thought and a thought full of comfort 
and encouragement. 

We can accomplish more for the salvation of others 
by praying for them than we can in any other way. I 
do not mean by this that when we feel our responsibility 
for the salvation of someone else we should merely pray 
for them and do nothing else. That is what many do, 
they are not willing to do their duty and go to them 
and speak to them about Christ, and so they go to God 
in prayer and when they have prayed for their salvation 
they flatter themselves that they have done their whole 
duty, and thus make their prayer an excuse for their 
cowardice and laziness and neglect of duty. That kind 
of praying is a mockery, it is simply an attempt to cover 
up and excuse our neglect of duty; and God will pay no 
attention whatever to prayers of that sort. God never 
gave us the wonderful privilege of prayer as a make- 
shift to cover up our laziness and neglect of duty. But, 


DEFINIFE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 35 


if we are willing that God should use us in answering our 
own prayers, willing to do anything that God may guide 
us to do to secure the salvation of those for whom we 
are praying, willing to do anything in our power to bring 
about the salvation of those for whom we pray, then we 
can accomplish far more for their salvation by praying 
for them than in any other way. 

Did you ever think how our Lord Jesus Himself ac- 
complished things by praying that even He could not 
accomplish in any other way? Take for example the case 
of Simon Peter. He was full of self-confidence and 
therefore was in imminent danger. Our Lord endeavoured 
by His teachings and by His warnings to deliver Peter 
from his self-confidence. He told Peter definitely of 
his coming temptation and of his fall, but Peter, filled with 
self-confidence, replied: “If all shall be offended in Thee, 
I will never be offended.” (Matt. 26:33.) And again, 
wlewi lavidown my life for Thee.) (tohn wl 1379) 
Teaching failed, warning failed, and then our Lord took 
to prayer. He said, “ Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked 
to have you, that he might sift you as wheat: but I made 
supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not; and do thou 
when once thou hast turned again, establish thy brethren.” 
(Luke 22:31, 32.) Satan got what he asked—he got 
Simon into his sieve and sifted him; and, oh, how poor 
Simon was battered and bruised against the edges of 
Satan’s sieve! But all the time Satan sifted, our Lord 
Jesus prayed, and Simon was perfectly safe even though 
he was in Satan’s sieve; and all Satan succeeded in doing 
with him was to sift some of the chaff out of him, and 
Simon came out of Satan’s sieve purer wheat than he 
ever was before. 

It was our Lord’s prayer for him that transformed the 


36 DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 


Simon who denied his Lord three times, and denied Him 
with oaths and curses, in the court yard of Annas and 
Caiaphas, into Peter, the man of rock, who faced the very 
court that sentenced Jesus to death and hurled defiance 
in their teeth and said, “ Ye rulers of the people and 
elders, if we this day are examined concerning a good 
deed done to an impotent man, by what means this man 
is made whole; be it known unto you all, and to all the 
people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of 
Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the 
dead, even in him doth this man stand here before you 
whole.” (Acts 4: 8-10.) 

Prayer will reach down, down, down into the deepest 
depths of sin and ruin and take hold of men and women 
who seem lost beyond all possibility or hope of redemp- 
tion, and lift them up, up, up until they are fit for a place 
beside the Son of God upon the throne. 

Many years ago in Chicago, in the early days of Mr. 
Moody’s work in that city, there was a very desperate 
man who used to attend the meetings and try to disturb 
them. He was a Scotchman and had been reared in a 
Christian home by a godly mother, but he had wandered 
far from the teachings of his childhood. He was a man 
dreaded even by other dissolute men in Chicago. One 
night he stood outside the old Tabernacle with a pitcher 
of beer in his hand offering a free drink to everybody 
that came out of the Tabernacle. At other times he would 
come into the meetings and into the after-meetings, and 
try and disturb the workers. One night Major Whittle 
was dealing with two young men and this desperate 
Scotchman stood near mocking until Major Whittle 
turned to the young men and said, “If you set any value 
upon your souls, I advise you not to have anything to 


DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 37 


do with that desperate man”; and he only laughed. But 
his old mother over in Scotland was praying; and one 
night he went to bed just as wicked and godless as ever, 
and in answer to his mother’s prayer,God awakened him 
in the middle of the night and brought to his mind a text 
of Scripture that he had forgotten was in the Bible, 
Romans 4:5, “But to him that worketh not, but be- 
lieveth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is 
reckoned for righteousness.” That verse of Scripture 
went home to his heart and he accepted Christ without 
getting out of bed. He became one of the most active 
and most useful members of the Moody Church. When 
I was pastor of the church he was one of the elders, and 
afterwards became visitor for the church, and he was 
used of God to lead many to Christ. 

Sometime after his own conversion he went to Scot- 
land to visit his old mother. He had a brother in Glas- 
gow in business and this brother was trying to be an 
agnostic. But the godly mother and converted son prayed 
for this brother and he was converted and gave himself 
up to God’s work, went to the Free Church College to 
prepare for foreign missionary work and for thirty years 
was a medical missionary in India under the Free Church 
of Scotland Missionary Board. But there was still an- 
other brother, a wanderer on the face of the earth. 
They did not know where he was, though they supposed 
he was somewhere on the high seas, but the godly mother 
and converted brother knelt and prayed for this wander- 
ing son and brother. As they prayed that son, unknown 
to them, was on the deck of a vessel on the other side 
of the globe, in the Bay of Bengal, not far from Calcutta ; 
and the Spirit of God fell upon that son on the deck of 
that vessel and he was converted. He was for many 


88 DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 


years a member of the Moody Church when I was pastor 
there, and when I went out to Los Angeles he followed 
me and became a member of our church in Los Angeles, 
and then died a triumphant death. Prayer had reached 
half-way round the world and saved instantly a man 
who seemed utterly beyond hope. 

When I was in England holding meetings in the city 
of Manchester, one of the leading business men came 
to me and asked me to pray for the conversion of his 
son. He said, “ My son is a graduate of Cambridge Uni- 
versity and a bright barrister. He has a wife and two 
children but he has left his wife and children and we do 
not know where he is. Will you pray for his con- 
version?”’ JI promised him that I would. Some months 
afterward this man came to me at the Keswick Con- 
vention and said, “I have got track of my boy. He is 
in Vancouver, British Columbia. Do you know any min- 
ister in Vancouver to whom I could cable?” I told him 
the name of a friend who was a minister of the Gospel 
in Vancouver and he cabled him. The next day he came 
to me and said, ‘‘ We were too late, the bird has flown, 
he has left Vancouver. Will you continue to pray for 
him?” I said I would. At the close of the same year, 
when we began our second series of meetings in Liver- 
pool, unknown to his father, this son had returned to 
England and was in Liverpool. He came to our very 
first Sunday afternoon meeting and was one of the first 
ones to accept Christ, and immediately began to study 
for holy orders under the Bishop of Liverpool. 

Let me tell you one more instance of the power of 
prayer to save, where everything else fails. Very soon 
after my own conversion God laid a certain man whom 
I greatly loved upon my heart, and I began to pray every 


{ 


DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 39 


day for his conversion. After having prayed for him for 
some time I thought to myself, “I will spend a whole 
night in prayer for his conversion.” I spent the whole 
night on my knees, though I must confess that “ while 
the spirit was willing the flesh was weak” and part of 
the night I fell asleep on my knees. The next morning 
I thought, “ You spent the whole night in prayer, now 
write him.” I was in New Haven and he was in New 
York, and I wrote him urging him to accept Christ. 
Almost by return of mail I got a letter from him making 
fun of me for what I was doing. Then the Devil tempted 
me to give up, he said, “ Here you spent the whole night 
in prayer for him and this is the only result. What is 
the use of praying?” But for once at least the Devil 
did not succeed in deceiving me or discouraging me, 
and I kept on praying for him. I prayed for him every 
day for fifteen years. In the meantime he had moved 
to Chicago and so had I. I called upon him at the old 
Sherman House where he was living, but he was more 
profane than usual—just to hurt my feelings. I ceased 
speaking to him but kept on praying. 

The very first winter that I was in Chicago, as I was 
praying for him one morning, God said to me, “ You need 
not pray any longer, I have heard your prayer, he will 
be converted.” I never asked God again for his con- 
version; but every morning I looked up to God and I said 
to Him, “ Heavenly Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast 
heard my prayer and now I am waiting to see it.” About 
two weeks passed by. This man had been confined to his 
bed by rheumatism and I had called on him at his home. 
Now he was up and came over to our home to dinner. 
After dinner I invited him to stay all night. He replied, 
“Well, I think I will. I am just up from rheumatism, 


40 DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 


it is damp out tonight, I am afraid to go out. Yes, I 
will stay all night.’ When he wakened the next morn- 
ing his rheumatism was back to that extent that his feet 
were so swollen that he was unable to get his shoes on, 
and he was shut up in. my house for two weeks. My 
day of opportunity had come. I did not speak directly 
to him about accepting Christ, but the children running 
in and out of his room seemed to speak more about the 
Lord Jesus than usual, although they always loved to 
talk about Him. My friends coming into our home and 
seeing him there in the ‘house of the minister took it 
for granted that he was a Christian and seemed to talk 
more than usual about Jesus Christ. After two weeks 
he was able to get his shoes on and after breakfast 
started down La Salle Avenue with me when I went to 
my office, he intending to go to his own home. 

We had walked about half a block when he turned to 
me suddenly and said, “Archie, I am thinking of going 
into temperance work. How do you begin?” I replied, 
“The only way that I know to begin temperance work 
is by first of all becoming a Christian yourself.” ‘“'Why,” 
he replied, “I always supposed I was a Christian.” I 
said, “ You have the strangest way of showing it of any 
person I ever knew in my life.” He said, “ How do you 
become a Christian?” I said, “Come over to my office 
and I will tell you.” He went over to my office and as 
Mr. Moody was away I took him up to Mr. Moody’s 
office, and we sat down and I explained to him the way 
of life. He was nearly eight years older than I, and yet 
I explained to him the way of life just as I would have 
explained it to a child, and like a child he listened and 
acted, and knelt down then and there and like a little 
child accepted Jesus Christ. He was preaching within 


DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 41 


a year—he preached up almost to the end. He was 
supplying a Presbyterian pulpit forty miles from Chicago. 
I had been down East visiting old friends of his and 
mine. 1 came back to Chicago and heard that he was 
poorly and I took the train and went out to see him. I 
found that he had not preached the day before, though 
he had preached the Sunday before that. I began to 
talk to him about old friends of his and mine in New 
York State. “Oh,” he said, “ never mind that, let’s have 
a time of prayer.” I spent the whole day with him. I 
was going South the next day to a Convention of students 
from Southern universities and I slept that night in the 
Institute in order to take an early train. Very early in 
the morning, before I was up, there came a rap at my door. 
I went to the door and one of my students stood there 
with a telegram in his hand. I opened it and it read, 
“Your brother passed away at two o'clock this morn- 
ing.’ Again I hurried out to the place where he had 
been supplying the pulpit, and as I went into that quiet 
room and turned back the white sheet from the face of 
my oldest brother as he lay there silent in death, I thanked 
God that for fifteen long years I had believed in a God 
who answered prayer. 

Oh, men and women, have you loved ones who are 
unsaved? There is a way to reach them: that way is by 
the throne of God. By the way of the throne of God 
you can reach out to the uttermost parts of the earth 
and get hold of your loved ones of whom you have lost 
all track. God knows where they are and God hears and 
answers prayer. At the close of a meeting in a certain 
city a lady came to me and said, “I have a brother above 
sixty years of age. I have been praying for his salvation 
for years but I have given up. I will begin again.” 


42 DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 


Within two weeks she came to me and said, “I have 
heard from my brother and he has accepted Christ.” 

Yes, yes, yes, “the supplication of a righteous man 
availeth much in its working,’ and if we would only 
pray more and be more sure that we had met the condi- 
tions of prevailing prayer, we would see multitudes more 
of men and women flocking to Jesus Christ. Oh, that 
we might pray as we ought, as intelligently as we ought, 
as definitely as we ought, as earnestly and determinedly 
as we ought, for the salvation of the men, women and 
children whom we know are unsaved. 


II. PrAveER Witt BrinGc BLESSING AND POWER TO 
MINISTERS OF THE WorpD 


Now turn to Eph. 6:17-20 R. V.: “And take the 
helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which 
is the Word of God: with all prayer and supplication 
praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching there- 
unto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints, 
and on my behalf, that utterance may be given unto me 
in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the 
mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in 
chains ; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” 
Here Paul urgently requests the earnest prayers of the 
believers in Ephesus for himself, that in answer to their 
prayers he may preach the Gospel with boldness and with 
power. Paul made a similar request of every church to 
which he wrote with one striking exception; that one ex- 
ception was the Church in Galatia. That church was a 
backsliding church and he did not care to have a back- 
sliding church praying for him. In every other case 
he urged the Church to pray for him. Here we see the 
power of prayer to bring blessing and boldness and effi- 


DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 43 


ciency to ministers of the Gospel, A minister can be 
made a man of power by prayer, and he can be unmade 
and bereft of power by people failing to pray for him. 
Any church can have a mighty man of God for tts pastor, 
tf it 1s willing to pay the price, and that price 1s not a big 
salary but great praying. 

Have you a pastor that you do not like, a pastor that 
is inefficient it may be, or perhaps a pastor who does not 
clearly know nor preach the truth? Do you want a new 
minister? I can tell you how to get him. Pray for the 
one you have till God makes him over. 

Many years ago in one of the Cornish parishes of the 
Church of England, the Vicar was not even a converted 
man. He had but little interest in the real things of God, 
his interest was largely in restoring old churches and in 
matters of ritual. There were a great many godly people 
in that parish and they began to pray to God to convert 
their minister, and then they would go to church every 
Sunday and watch for the answer to their prayers. One 
Lord’s Day when he rose to speak he had not uttered 
many sentences before the people of spiritual discern- 
ment realized that their prayers had been answered and 
a cry arose all over the church, “ The parson’s converted, 
the parson’s converted ;”’ and it was true. He was not 
only converted but he was endued with power from on 
high; and for many years God used that man all over 
England for the conversion of sinners, for the blessing 
of all saints, and for the quickening of churches, as 
almost no other man in the Church of England. 

There was a church in the City of Hartford, Connectt- 
cut, that had a very brilliant man for its pastor, but he 
was not sound in doctrine. There were three godly men 
in that church who realized that their pastor was not 


44 DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 


preaching the truth. But they did not go around among 
the congregation stirring up dissatisfaction with the pas- 
tor. They covenanted together to meet every Saturday 
night to pray long into the night for their minister. So 
Saturday night after Saturday night they met in earnest 
and protracted prayer, then Sunday morning they would 
go to church and sit in their places and watch for an 
answer to their prayers. One Sunday morning when the 
minister rose to speak he was just as brilliant and just 
as gifted as ever, but it soon became evident that God 
had transformed his ideas and transformed the man, and 
Dr. Theo. Cuyler is authority for the statement that God 
sent to the City of Hartford the greatest revival that city 
ever had, through that minister who was transformed by 
the prayers of his members. Oh, if we would talk less 
to one another against our ministers, and more to God 
in their behalf, we would have far better ministers than 
we have now. 

Have you a minister that you do like? Do you wish 
him to be even better, do you wish him to be far more 
effective than he is today? Pray for him till God gives 
him new wisdom and clothes him with new power. 

Have you ever heard how Dwight L. Moody became 
a world-wide evangelist? After the great fire in Chicago, 
Mr. Moody stayed in Chicago long enough to get money 
together to feed the poor and to provide a new building 
for his own work, and then he went to England for a rest. 
He did not intend to preach at all, but to hear some of 
the great preachers on the other side of the water, Spur- 
geon, Geo. Muller, and others. He was invited to preach 
one Sunday in a Congregational church in the North of 
London, of which a Mr. Lessey was the pastor. He ac- 
cepted the invitation. Sunday morning as he preached 


DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 45 


he had great difficulty. As he told the story to me many 
years afterward, he said, “I had no power, no liberty; 
it seemed like pulling a heavy train up a steep grade, 
and as I preached I said to myself, ‘ What a fool I was 
to consent to preach. I came here to hear others, and 
here I am preaching.’ As I drew to the close of my 
sermon I had a sense of relief that I was so near through, 
and then the thought came to me, ‘ Well, I’ve got to do it 
again tonight.’ I tried to get Mr. Lessey to release me 
from preaching that night, but he would not consent. I 
went to ‘the evening service with a heavy heart. But I 
had not been preaching long when it seemed as if the 
powers of an unseen world had fallen upon that audi- 
ence. As I drew to the close of my sermon I got courage 
to draw the net. I asked all that would then and there 
accept Christ to rise, and about five hundred people arose 
to their feet. I thought there must be some mistake; sa 
I asked them to sit down, and then I said, ‘ There will 
be an after-meeting in the vestry, and if any of you wil! 
really accept Christ meet the pastor and me in the vestry.’ 

“There was a door at each side of the pulpit into the 
vestry and people began to stream through these doors 
nuito the vestry, and I turned to Mr. Lessey and said, 
‘Mr. Lessey, who are these people?’ He replied, ‘I do 
not know.’ ‘Are they your people?’ ‘Some of them 
are. ‘Are they Christians?’ ‘Not as far as I know.’ 
We went into the vestry and I repeated the invitation 
in a stronger form, and they all rose again. I still thought 
that there must be some mistake and asked them to be 
seated, and repeated the invitation in a still stronger form, 
and again they all arose. I still thought there must be 
some mistake and I said to the people, ‘I am going to 
Ireland tomorrow, but your pastor will be here tomorrow 


46 DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 


night and if you really mean what you have said here 
tonight meet him here.’ After I reached Ireland I re- 
ceived a telegram from Mr. Lessey saying, ‘Mr. Moody, 
there were more people out on Monday night than on 
Sunday night. A revival has broken out in our church 
and you must come back and help me.’” Mr. Moody 
hurried back from Dublin to London and held a series 
of meetings in Mr, Lessey’s church that added hundreds 
of people to the churches of North London, and that was 
what led to the invitation that took him over to England 
later for the great work that stirred the whole world. 
After Mr. Moody had told me that story I said, “ Mr. 
Moody, somebody must have been praying.” “Oh,” he 
said, “did I not tell you that? That is the point of the 
whole story. There were two sisters in that church, one 
of whom was bedridden; the other one heard me that 
Sunday morning. She went home and said to her sister, 
‘Who do you suppose preached for us this morning?’ 
The sister replied, ‘I do not know.’ Then she said, 
“Guess, and the sister guessed all the men that Mr. 
Lessey was in the habit of exchanging with, but her sister 
said ‘No.’ Then her sister asked, ‘ Who did preach for 
us this morning?’ And she replied, ‘Mr. Moody of 
Chicago.” No sooner had she said it than her sister 
turned pale as death and said, ‘What! Mr. Moody of 
Chicago! I have read of him in an American paper and 
I have been praying God to send him to London, and 
to send him to our church. If I had known he was to 
preach this morning I would have eaten no breakfast, I 
would have spent the whole morning in fasting and 
prayer. Now, sister, go out, lock the door, do not let 
any one come to see me, do not let them send me any 
dinner; I am going to spend the whole afternoon and 


DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 47 


evening in fasting and prayer.’” And pray she did, and 
God heard and answered. God is just as ready to hear 
and answer you as He was to answer that bedridden saint. 
To whatever church you belong, and whoever your 
pastor is, you can make him a man of power. If he is 
a man of power already, you can make him a man of 
even greater power. 

Will you bear with me while I give you a leaf out of 
my own experience? When I went to Chicago it was not 
to take the pastorate of a church but to be Superintendent 
of the Bible Institute, and of the Chicago Evangelization 
Society. After I had been there four years the pulpit 
of the Moody Church became vacant and Mr. Moody 
and I asked them to call a very gifted preacher from 
Aberdeen, Scotland; which they did. While we waited 
to hear from him as to whether he would accept the call, 
I filled the pulpit; and God so blessed the preaching of 
His Word that quite a number of the people were pray- 
ing that the minister from Scotland would not accept 
the call, and he did not. Then they called me to the 
pastorate. I could not see how I could take it; my hands 
were full with the Institute, the lectures, the corre- 
spondence and other duties. But Mr. Moody urged me 
to accept the call; he said, “ That is what I have been 
wanting all the time. If you will only accept the call, 
I will give you all the help that you ask for, and provide 
men to help you in the Institute ” ; and I accepted the call. 

The first sermon that I preached after taking the pas- 
torate of the church was upon prayer, and in it I said 
some of the things that I have said here. As I drew 
toward the close of my sermon I said, “ How glad your 
new pastor would be if he knew that some of you men 
and women of God sat up late Saturday night, or rose 


48 DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 


early Sunday morning, to pray for your new pastor ;” 
and many of those dear saints of God took me at my 
word. Many of them sat up late Saturday night praying 
for their minister, and many of then rose early Sunday 
morning to pray for their minister; and God answered 
prayer. The church building when I took the pastorate 
would seat twenty-two hundred people, twelve hundred 
on the floor and one thousand in the gallery; but in the 
preceding years only the floor of the church was filled, 
and the gallery only opened on special occasions, when 
Mr. Moody was there or something of that kind. Almost 
immediately it became necessary to open the gallery; and 
then in the evening service every inch of standing room 
would be taken, until we packed twenty-seven hundred 
people into that building by actual count, and the police 
authorities required us to no longer allow people to sit 
on the stairs or stand in the aisles. Then we had an 
overflow meeting in the rooms below, which would seat 
eleven hundred, and oftentimes into the Institute Lecture 
Hall also. 

But that was not the best of it. There were con- 
versions every Sunday; indeed, there were conversions 
in and about the church practically every day in the week. 
The great majority of those who were converted did not 
unite with the Moody Church, they were strangers pass- 
ing through the city, or people that came from other 
churches. It got to be quite the custom for some min- 
isters to send their people over to our church to have 
them converted, then they would go back and join the 
churches to which they properly belonged. So only a 
comparatively small proportion of those converted united 
with our church, and yet the smallest number that we 
ever received into the Church in any one of the eight years 


DEFINITE AND DESIRABLE RESULTS 49 


that I remained there as active pastor was two hundred 
fifty, and in those eight years I had the joy of giving 
the right hand of fellowship to over two thousand new 
members. 

And it went on just the same way the four years 
that I was only nominally pastor and not at the church at 
all, under the different men that came there and whom 
the people prayed into power. It went on the same way 
under Dr. Dixon’s pastorate. It was not so much the 
men who were preaching as the people behind them who 
were praying that accomplished such great things for 
God. And then when I started around the world those 
people still followed me with their prayers; and it was 
reported when I came back, by one who claimed to know, 
that there were over one hundred and two thousand 
persons who made a definite profession of accepting 
Christ in the different places I visited in those months 
that I was away. When I came back after my first 
eighteen months’ absence, Dr. Dixon met me one day, and 
he said to me (this was before he became pastor of the 
church), “ Torrey, when we heard the things that were 
done in Australia and elsewhere we were all surprised. 
We didn’t think it was in you.” He was perfectly right 
about that, it wasn’t in me. Then he added, “ But when 
I went out and supplied your church for a month and 
heard your people pray for you, I understood it.” Oh,” 
any church can have a minister who is a man of power, 
a minister who is baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost, 
if they are willing to pay the price, and the price is 
prayer, much prayer, much real prayer, prayer in the 
Holy Ghost. 


IIT 


WHAT PRAYER CAN DO FOR CHURCHES, AND 
FOR THE NATION, AND FOR ALL 
NATIONS 


“With all prayer and supplication praying at all sea- 
sons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all persever- 
ance and supplication for all the saints.”’—Epu. 6: 18. 


You will find the text in Eph. 6:18 R. V. 

“ With all prayer and supplication praying at 
all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all 
perseverance and supplication for all the saints.” 

What a tremendous emphasis Paul here puts upon the 
importance and power of prayer, and upon the imperative 
need of intense earnestness and never wearying persist- 
ence in prayer. Listen to the text again: “ With all 
prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the 
Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and 
supplication for all the saints.” 

We have already seen in our studies some of the things 
of the very first importance that are wrought by prayer, 
and that cannot be brought to pass in any other way. We 
have seen that true prayer will promote our own personal 
piety, and our individual holiness, our individual growth 
into the likeness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 
as almost nothing else, as nothing else but the study of 
the Word of God. We have seen that prayer will bring 


power into our work, that it is the privilege of every 
50 


M subject this morning is, What Prayer Can Do. 


WHAT PRAYER CAN DO OL 


child of God to have the power of God manifested in his 
work in whatever line of service He calls him to, and 
that this power is obtained by prayer and in no other way. 
We have seen that prayer avails mightily for others as 
well as for ourselves; that we can accomplish more for 
the salvation of others by praying for them than we can 
in any other way, that prayer avails for the salvation of 
men and women who are so sunken in sin, and so far 
from God, that there seems no possible hope of their 
redemption for them. We have seen, furthermore, that 
prayer brings power to the minister of the Gospel, that 
any church can have a man of power for its pastor that 
is willing to pay the price, and that the price is not a 
big salary but big praying. 

We shall make other discoveries today of the wonderful 
things, and things that are greatly to be desired, that can 
be brought to pass by prayer and that can be brought to 
pass in no other way. 

Andrew Murray has said, “God’s child can conquer 
everything by prayer. Is it any wonder that Satan does 
his utmost to snatch that weapon from the Christian or 
to hinder him in the use of it?” Well, if the Devil is 
doing “his utmost to snatch that weapon from the Chris- 
tian or to hinder him in the use of it,” I wish to do my 
utmost to restore that mighty weapon to the hands of the 
Church, and to stir you up to use this weapon in mighty 
and victorious onslaught on Satan and his forces. 

It is true that we have a terrific fight on hand, that 
“our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against 
the principalities, against the powers, against the world- 
rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of 
wickedness in the heavenly places”” (Eph. 6:12), but we 
can win this fight by prayer; for prayer brings God on 


52 WHAT PRAYER CAN DO 


the field and the Devil is no match for Him. I say we 
can win this fight, as terrible as it 1s and as mighty and 
cunning as our enemies are, by praying, and we cannot 
qwin it in any other way. Men are constantly appearing 
who have discovered some new way of defeating the Devil 
by some cunning scheme that they have devised, by the 
social gospel, for example, or by some other humanly 
devised method. But there is no new way that will win: 
the old way, the Bible way, the way of definite, deter- 
mined and persistent prayer in the Holy Spirit, will win 
every time. 


I. Prayer Witt Brinc BLESSING To CHURCHES 


Let us now look at something else in addition to the 
important things already mentioned that prayer will do. 
Turn to I Thess, 3:11-13: “ Now may our God and 
Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way unto 
you: and the Lord make you to increase and abound in 
love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we 
also do toward you: to the end he may establish your 
hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father 
at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” 

In our last study we saw the Church praying for Paul: 
in this passage we see Paul praying for the Church. 
Prayer will bring blessing, definite and rich and im- 
measurable blessing, to the Church, praying will do more 
to make the Church what it ought to be than anything 
else we can do. Prayer will do more to root out heresy 
than all the heresy trials that were ever held. Prayer 
will do more to straighten out tangles and misunderstand- 
ings and unhappy complications in the life of a Church 
than all the councils and conferences that were ever held. 
Prayer will do more to bring a deep and lasting and. 


WHAT PRAYER CAN DO 53 


sweeping revival, a revival that is real and lasting and 
altogether of the right sort, than all the organizations 
that were ever devised by man. 

The history of the Church of Jesus Christ on earth 
has been largely a history of revivals. When you read 
many of the Church histories that have been written 
the impression that you naturally get is, that the history 
of the Church of Jesus Christ here on earth has been 
very largely a history of misunderstandings, disputes, doc- 
trinal differences and bitter conflicts ; but, if you will study 
the history of the living Church, you will find it has 
been very largely a history of revivals. Humanly speak- 
ing, the Church of Jesus Christ owes its very existence 
today to revivals. Time and time again the Church has 
seemed to be on the verge of utter shipwreck; but just 
then God has sent a great revival and saved it. And if 
you will study the history of revivals you will find that 
every real revival in the Church has been the child of 
prayer. There have been revivals without much preach- 
ing; there have been revivals with absolutely no organiza- 
tion; but there has never been a mighty revival without 
mighty praying. 

Take the great revival that so marvelously blessed our 
whole nation in 1857. How did that revival come about? 
A humble city missionary in the City of New York, named 
Landfear, became greatly burdened because of the state 
of the Church, and he got hold of two other men who 
were like-minded and they three began to pray for a 
revival. Then they opened a daily noon-meeting for prayer 
and invited others. These meetings were very poorly 
attended at first. On one occasion, if I remember cor- 
rectly, there were only two persons present, and I think 
that on one occasion there was only one person present, 


54 WHAT PRAYER CAN DO 


this humble city missionary himself, this very obscure man 
Landfear, whose sisters I afterwards knew well and whose 
cousin was a member of the first church of which I was 
pastor. But soon the interest began to deepen and large 
crowds began to flock to.the meetings for prayer. Such 
throngs came that it became necessary to appoint other 
prayer-meetings, and I have been told, and I think cor- 
rectly told, that after a while prayer-meetings were held 
every hour of the day and night in New York City, and 
not only the churches were used for prayer-meetings but 
theatres and other places of public resort, and these places 
were crowded with praying men and praying women. 
The fire spread from New York to Philadelphia and to 
other cities, and then swept over the entire country. A 
young man came into one of the meetings in Chicago 
on one occasion and said that he had just come back from 
a trip to the far west, and that at every place where he 
had stopped on the way back to Chicago prayer-meetings 
_ were being held. 

In New York City, at one of the Presbyterian min- 
isters’ meetings, Dr. Gardiner Spring, who was perhaps 
at that time the most prominent minister in New York, 
said to the assembled brethren, “It is evident that a re- 
vival has come to us and we ministers must preach.” 
Someone replied, “ Well, if anyone must preach you must 
preach the first sermon, for you are the best qualified to 
do it of any man in the city.” So it was announced that 
on a certain day Dr. Gardiner Spring would preach, but 
no more people came out to hear the preaching than came 
out to the prayer-meetings, so they stopped the preaching 
and went on praying. The whole emphasis was on prayer, 
and this whole nation was shaken by the power of God 
as it had never been shaken before, and perhaps has never 


WHAT PRAYER CAN DO 55 


been shaken since. That is the kind of a revival I am 
longing to see here in our city; yes, throughout our whole 
land; yes, throughout the world. Not a revival where 
there is great preaching and marvelous singing and all 
kinds of bewildering antics by preachers or singers, or 
skillful managers or manipulators; but a revival where 
there is mighty praying and wonderful displays of the 
convicting and converting and regenerating power of 
the Holy Spirit in answer to prayer. 

Don’t come to me and tell me what this man or that 
man, or this woman or that woman, is doing that you 
think is wrong or that you think is right, go to God 
and tell Him if you like; but it is far more important 
that you pray to Him. Pray, pray, pray for Him to bless 
this church and to bless other churches of this city, and 
to bless the whole land; yes, and to bless every land. 

The news of what God was doing in 1857 in America 
spread to the North of Ireland, and the General Assembly 
of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland sent a Commission 
to America to study the work and to come back and 
report. When they came back they gave to the next 
General Assembly a very glowing report of what was 
being done in America. People began to pray that Ire- 
land might also have a similar visitation from God. 

Four young men in the little town of Kells, in the 
North of Ireland, banded themselves together and met 
every Saturday night for prayer for a revival and spent 
the whole night in prayer. They were humble men, one 
of them was a farmer, one was a blacksmith, one was 
a school teacher, and I do not recall what the fourth 
was, but I know he was in some humble sphere of life. 
When Mr. Alexander and I were holding meetings in 
London, and God was working there in great power, 


56 WHAT PRAYER CAN DO 


one of these four men, at that time living in Glasgow, 
sent his grandson down to London to consult with Mr. 
Alexander and myself and to observe the work and bring 
back a report to him as to whether it was a real work 
of God or not. 

After these young men had been praying for sometime 
they went out to try and preach, but their attempt was 
a failure, so they went back and kept on praying. God 
heard their prayer and the fire of God fell, and the work 
went on in such marvelous power in some parts of Ire- 
land that courts adjourned because there were no cases 
to try, jails were closed because there were no prisoners 
to incarcerate, and in some places even the grain stood 
ungarnered in the fields because men were so taken up 
with things of God and of eternity that they had no 
time to attend even to the things that ordinarily are so 
necessary. Many of the most notorious and hardened 
and hopeless sinners in the land were converted and thor- 
oughly transformed. 

Let me tell you how the revival came to Coleraine. I 
know something about that, because when Mr. Alexander 
and I were in Belfast, Ireland, in 1903, they were about 
to celebrate at Coleraine the forty-third anniversary of 
how the revival came to Coleraine, and they sent a com- 
mittee down to Belfast to invite Mr. Alexander and my- 
self to go up and celebrate the anniversary of the coming 
of the revival to Coleraine sixty-three years before. We 
were unable to go; but I read very carefully the account 
of the revival as it was given by Rev. William Gibson, 
Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church in Ireland for 1860, in his book, The Year of 
Grace. It was reported on a certain day in Coleraine 
that three young men were coming to Coleraine that even- 


WHAT PRAYER CAN DO 57 


ing to hold an open air meeting in the market-place. At 
the appointed hour the ministers of the city went down 
to the market-place out of curiosity, to see what was done. 
To their amazement they saw the people pouring. into 
the market-place from every quarter until there were no 
less than fifteen thousand people gathered together in 
the market-place. The ministers looked at one another 
in bewilderment and dismay and said, “ We must preach, 
these young men can never deal with a vast throng like 
this.” 

So they put up four pulpits at the four corners of the 
market-place and a preacher ascended each pulpit. They 
had not been preaching long when a very solemn awe 
fell upon the entire throng, and soon in one section of 
the market-place there was a loud cry and a man fell to 
the ground under such overwhelming conviction of sin 
that he could not stand on his feet. He was carried 
out to the Town Hall that was not yet completed. Soon 
a cry arose in another part of the market-place and an- 
other man fell under the power of conviction of sin, and 
he too was taken to the Town Hall; then another, and 
then another, and then another fell in different parts of 
the market-place until conviction became so general that 
the meeting broke up and the ministers adjourned to the 
Town Hall to deal individually with stricken souls. The 
Presbyterian minister who tells the incident says, that he 
was in the Town Hall all night dealing with souls over- 
whelmed with deep conviction of sin. When the morn- 
ing dawned, this minister tells us, he started for his home, 
but as he went up the street he found people standing 
on their doorsteps waiting for him to pass, because there 
were people under conviction of sin in their homes and 
they wanted to invite him in to deal with them. He went 


58 WHAT PRAYER CAN DO 


into one home after another, and there were so many to 
deal with that the sun had set before he reached his own 
home. The whole town of Coleraine was so transformed 
and so impressed that in completing the Town Hall they 
put in an inscribed tablet dedicating the hall to the memory 
of the revival, and for every year of the forty-three years 
up to that time they were commemorating the coming of 
the revival to Coleraine; and I think they have kept up 
the commemoration annually to this present day, making 
sixty-three years in all. 

I think it was at the close of the week of prayer in 
January, 1901, that Miss Strong, Superintendent of 
Women of the Bible Institute of Chicago, came to me 
and said, ‘“ Why not keep up these prayer-meetings at 
least once a week after the week of prayer is over, and 
pray for a world-wide revival?” This suggestion ap- 
proved itself to the Faculty and we appointed a prayer- 
meeting every Saturday night from nine to ten o’clock 
(after the popular Bible class was over) at which people 
could gather to pray for just one thing—a world-wide 
revival. Three or four hundred gathered every Saturday 
night for that purpose, and God gave to us great liberty 
and great expectation in prayer. Soon we began to hear 
of the working of God in Japan and other lands, and 
yet the work was not as general as we wanted to see. 
People would come to me and to my colleague who was 
most intimately associated with me in the conduct of the 
meetings, and ask, “ Has the revival come?” We replied, 
“ No, not as far as we know.” “ When is it coming?” 
“We do not know.” “ How long are you going to keep 
praying?” “ Until it comes.” 

After we had been praying for some months two men 
from far away Australia appeared in our lecture room. 


WHAT PRAYER CAN DO 59 


After they had been attending the lectures for sometime 
they asked for a private conversation with me. They 
told me that in leaving Australia they had been com- 
missioned to go to England, to Keswick and other places, 
and to other gatherings in America, and select someone 
to invite to Australia to conduct an evangelistic campaign. 
They said further that they had both agreed upon me: 
would I go? I replied, “I do not see how I can leave 
Chicago. I have the Bible Institute to look after, and also 
the Chicago Avenue Church (the Moody Church), and 
I do not see how I can possibly get away from Chicago.” 
“Well,” they said, “ you are coming to Australia.” Some 
months passed by and I was in a Bible Conference in St. 
Louis and I received a letter from Australia asking me 
to cable my acceptance of their invitation, and that they 
would at once cable me the money to come. I laid the 
matter before the Conference and asked them to pray 
over it, and withdrew from the Conference in order to be 
alone in prayer. And God made it clear that I should 
go, and I so cabled them. When Mr. Alexander and I 
reached Australia we found that there was a group of 
about ten or twelve men who had been praying for years 
for a great revival in Australia. They had banded to- 
gether to pray for “the big revival,” as they called it in 
their prayers, to pray for the revival no matter how long 
it took. The group was led by the Rev. John McNeil, the 
author of The Spirit-Filled Life, but he had died before 
we reached Australia. A second member of the group, 
Rev. Allan Webb, died the first week of our meetings in 
Melbourne. He had come to Melbourne to assist in the 
meetings, and died on his knees in prayer. A third mem- 
ber of the group, even before we had been invited to 
Australia, had been given a vision of great crowds flock- 


60 WHAT PRAYER CAN DO 


ing to the Exposition Hall, people hanging on to the 
loaded street cars wherever they could; and when that 
vision was fulfilled he came a long distance to Melbourne 
just to see with his own eyes what God had revealed to 
him before. ~ 

We also found that a lady in Melbourne had read a 
book on Prayer and had been very deeply impressed by 
one short sentence in the book, “ pray through,” and that 
she had gone to work and had organized prayer-meetings 
all over the city before we reached the place; indeed, 
we found when we reached Melbourne that there were 
seventeen hundred neighbourhood prayer-meetings being 
held every week in Melbourne. We remained in that city 
four weeks. The first two weeks the meetings were held by 
many different pastors and evangelists in some forty or 
fifty different centres throughout the city, though meetings 
for the whole city were held at one o’clock, and two o’clock, 
and three o’clock each day in the Town Hall. The last 
_ two weeks, the meetings were all concentrated in the 
Exposition Hall, seating about eight thousand people. At 
the very first meeting in the Exposition Hall the crowd 
was so great that they swept the police before them, 
packed the building far beyond its proper capacity, and 
great crowds still who could not get in. In the four weeks, 
eight thousand six hundred and forty-two persons made 
a definite profession of having accepted the Lord Jesus 
Christ as their Saviour. And when we went back to 
Melbourne some months later and held a meeting of the 
converts, six thousand of them were present at that meet- 
ing; most of whom had already joined the Church; and 
almost all those who had not united with the Church as 
yet, promised to do so at once. The report of what God 
had done in Melbourne spread not only all over Australia, 


WHAT PRAYER CAN DO 61 


but to India, and England and Scotland and Ireland, and 
resulted in a wonderful work of God in the leading cities 
of England, Scotland and Ireland, and the whole world- 
wide work was the outcome of the prayer-meetings held 
in Chicago, and of the prayers of the little group of men 
in Australia. if 

The great Welsh revival in 1904, of the beginning of 
which I was an eye-witness, came in a similar way. Mr. 
Alexander and I had been invited to Cardiff, Wales, for 
a month’s mission. The announcement that we were 
going there was made about a year before we went, and 
prayer began to go up all over England and Scotland and 
Wales that God would send a revival not only to Cardiff 
but to all Wales. When we reached Cardiff we found 
that for almost a year they had been holding a prayer- 
meeting from six to seven every morning in Penarth, a 
suburb of Cardiff, praying for a great revival. For the 
first two weeks or so things dragged. Great crowds came 
and there was great enthusiasm in the singing, but we 
could not get the people to do personal work. Then we 
appointed a day of fasting and prayer, and the day was 
observed in other parts of Wales as well as in Cardiff. 
In one place Seth Joshua, who was afterwards so greatly 
used in the revival, was the leading figure and had charge 
of the meeting, and wrote me a most glowing and cheer- 
ing account of what God had done in that place on that 
day. I think it was on that very day that he was kneel- 
ing beside Evan Roberts, and as he prayed the power of 
God fell upon Evan Roberts. The power of God came 
down in Cardiff in such a wonderful way that when Mr. 
Alexander and I were compelled to leave at the end of 
the month in order to keep an engagement in Liverpool, 
the meetings went right on without us and they went 


62 WHAT PRAYER CAN DO 


on for one whole year—meetings every night for a whole 
year, and multitudes were converted. From Cardiff the 
fire spread up and down the valleys of Wales. Soon after 
we had reached Liverpool, the next city that we visited, 
I received a letter from the minister who was Secretary 
of our mission in Cardiff, in which he said that his 
assistant had gone out the preceding Sunday night up 
one of the valleys of Wales and that as he preached the 
power of God fell on him and one hundred persons were 
converted while he was preaching. The fire spread over 
the entire country under Evan Roberts and others, and 
it is said that over one hundred thousand souls were con- 
verted in twelve months. 

Oh, that is what we need more than anything else today, 
in our own land and in all lands, a real, mighty outpour- 
ing of the Spirit of God. The most fundamental trouble 
with most of our present-day so-called revivals is, that 
they are man-made and not God-sent. They are worked 
up (I had almost said faked up) by man’s cunningly de- 
vised machinery—not prayed down. Oh, for an old-time 
revival, a revival that is really and not spuriously of the 
Pentecostal pattern; for that revival was born of a four- 
teen days prayer-meeting. But let us not merely sigh for 
it; let us cry for it, cry to God, cry long and cry loud 
if need be, and then it will surely come. 


Il. PRAYER WiLL Brinc BLESSING AND VICTORY TO 
ForEeEIGN MIssIons 


Now turn to Matt. 9: 36-38 R. V.: “ But when he saw 
the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, 
because they were distressed and scattered, as sheep not 
having a shepherd. Then said he unto his disciples, The 
harvest indeed is plenteous, but the labourers are few. 


WHAT PRAYER CAN DO 63 


Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send 
forth labourers into his harvest.” Here we see from our 
Lord’s own teaching that prayer will bring blessing to 
foreign missions. It will get the needed men and women, 
and the right kind of men and women, for the work 
in all the fields which are now white for the harvest in 
many lands. It will also bring blessing and power to the 
men and women who go to the field. THE GREATEST NEED 
OF FOREIGN MISSIONS TODAY IS PRAYER. It is true that 
men are greatly needed, and it is true that money is 
needed; but prayer is far more needed. When we pray 
as we ought the men and the women will come, and the 
money will come. Even though men came in crowds, 
without prayer they would be of no use; they will be of 
no use whatever unless they are backed by prayer. 

We have had in this country men of great force of 
character and mind who have greatly stirred the stu- 
dents of this country to an interest in foreign missions, 
and have gathered large numbers of men and women for 
the foreign field, without much prayer; and these men 
and women, though gifted, some of them greatly talented, 
have oftentimes been an actual curse to the work. It 
is my conviction, founded upon quite a little observation, 
that the work of foreign missions would be far better off 
today if these men had gone into secular work and let 
missions alone. ‘The results of their work have been 
most sinister. I have seen much of it with my own eyes 
in China and elsewhere, and I am convinced that one of 
the most discouraging problems that faces foreign mis- 
sion work in China today has arisen from the large num- 
ber of men and women who have gone into the foreign 
work not because they were sent of God in answer to 


64 WHAT PRAYER CAN DO 


prayer, but because they were stirred up by a man of 
attractive personality and rare power. 

What we have said of men is just as true of money. 
No matter how much money may be put into foreign mis- 
sions, the money will be of no real use unless the men 
and women whom the money sends out are backed by 
prayer. Indeed, without prayer, the money will be a curse 
rather than a blessing. Probably no other missionary 
society in all this world’s history has ever accomplished 
as much good, all things considered, that is of real and 
lasting value, as the China Inland Mission; and that is so 
because this Mission was born of so much prayer and 
backed by so much ‘prayer. 

But what shall we pray for in connection with foreign 
missions ? 

1. First of all we should pray, just as the words of our 
Lord Jesus we are studying command us to pray, for men 
and women. Listen to our Lord’s words again, “ The 
harvest indeed is plenteous, but the labourers are few. 
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send 
forth labourers into his harvest.” It is not so mucha large 
number of men and women who are needed, it is the right 
kind of men and women. A large number of men and 
women are needed, no question about that, the fields were 
never so white for the harvest before as they are today, 
and the labourers are indeed few; but the greatest need 
is the right kind of men and women, MISSIONS IN CHINA 
AND ELSEWHERE WOULD BE FAR BETTER OFF TODAY IF 
MANY OF THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO HAVE GONE OUT HAD 
REMAINED AT HOME. LEarnest-minded men and women 
from this country who visit China and are brought in 
close contact with some of the young men and women 
that are being poured into China by certain missionary 


WHAT PRAYER CAN DO 65 


societies are appalled at the thought that men and women 
of this type should be sent out for foreign mission work. 
Many of the older missionaries who have made great 
sacrifices for the work, and by much effort and prayer 
have gathered together bodies of believers who really 
know the Lord, tremble as they think what the influence 
of this type of missionaries will be upon the doctrine and 
the life of the Chinese converts. Many of the Christian 
Chinese themselves feel that they must protest against 
the teaching and the manner of life of these would-be 
missionaries. 

Z. In the second place, we should pray for the mis- 
sionaries who have already gone out. We have already 
seen how much prayer does to make a minister of the 
Gospel what he ought to be. If possible, it is even more 
effective in making missionaries what they ought to be, 
and the neglect of prayer on the part of the people at 
home has much to do with the comparative failure of 
many of the missionaries on the field. Every Christian 
at home should have some definite missionaries in the 
field for whom he is praying definitely, constantly, per- 
sistently, and intensely. The man or woman at home 
who prays, often has as much to do with the effective- 
ness of the missionary on the field, and consequently with 
the results of his labours, as the missionary himself. 

3. In the third place, We should pray for the out- 
pouring of the Spirit on different fields. Oh, how much 
genuine revivals of religion in the power of the Holy 
Spirit are needed in the various missionary fields of the 
world. And revivals on the foreign field come in exactly 
the same way we have just seen revivals come at home— 
in answer to prayer. That could be proved by many 
illustrations. Mr. Finney tells of a mighty man of prayer 


66 WHAT PRAYER CAN DO 


who was interested not only in the work at. home, but 
abroad; and after his death his diary was found and in 
examining it it was found that on certain days it was 
recorded that he had a great burden of prayer for some 
specific foreign missionary field, and upon inquiry it was 
found that in each instance revivals on the foreign field 
had followed this man’s insistent intercession, and fol- 
lowed in the exact order of his petitions as recorded in 
his diary. Many of us are tempted to criticise the foreign 
work because of the meagerness of the results, but ought 
not our criticism to begin with ourselves? May ‘it not 
be that the meagerness of the results is the consequence 
of the meagerness of our own prayer? At all events we 
can increase the blessed and glorious results of the work 
in foreign fields by giving more time to real prayer here 
at home. 

4. In the fourth place, We should pray for the native 
converts. It is difficult for us to realize how many and 
how great are the obstacles put in the way of a native 
convert’s standing stedfast in the new life, and the diffi- 
culties that lie in the way of his living such a life as a 
Christian ought to live, in the atmosphere that he daily 
breathes. Many of the converts in many fields are men 
and women of an unusually high type of character. My 
son has told me that some of the Christian Chinese he 
knows intimately put him to shame by their clearness of 
understanding of the deep things of God and by the Christ- 
likeness and devotion of their lives. But while this is 
true, we should never forget that it is far more difficult 
for one converted in a heathen land to lead the life a 
Christian ought to live than it is for one converted in 
this land, and, therefore, the converts greatly need our 
prayers. And our prayer “ availeth much in its working ” 


WHAT PRAYER CAN DO 67 


in the lives of those who are won to Christ in the foreign 
field. 

5. In the fifth place, We should pray for the native 
churches. We should not only pray for the converts as 
individuals, but for the churches as organizations, Every 
church has its peculiar problems. Take for example the 
Church of Christ in Korea. It is difficult for anyone 
who has not visited that land, so wonderfully favoured of 
God in missionary work and at the same time so amaz- 
ingly resisted by the Devil in various ways, to realize how 
much the Church of Christ in Korea needs the prayers of 
those in the home land who believe in Christ and in 
prayer. And so also do the churches in China, and 
Africa, and India, and elsewhere, greatly need our prayers 
here at home. 

6. In the sixth place, We should pray for the secre- 
taries and official members of the various boards here at 
home. 

7. In the seventh place and finally, We should pray 
for money. Many of the boards and missionary societies 
are in extreme distress for funds today. This is true 
even of boards and councils of whose loyalty to the faith 
there is no question: they are in great need of increased 
gifts. The way to get the money is to pray for it: and 
not only for those who are immediately responsible for 
the money to pray for it, but for us all to pray for it. 
Very likely, if we pray as we ought, God will give us to 
see that we ourselves ought to go down into our own 
pockets as we never have done to aid in answering our 
own prayers. 

There are many other definite things, and things greatly 
to be desired, that definite and determined prayer will 
bring to pass; but not only does time fail to speak of 


68 WHAT PRAYER CAN DO 


them but I wish to concentrate your attention on these 
two things today: First, that prayer will bring blessing 
to the churches ; and second, that prayer will bring blessing 
and victory to foreign missions. 

Oh, how much we need the blessing that includes all 
other blessings for the Church, a great, deep, thorough- 
going, wide-spread revival. And how we need larger 
blessing and more thoroughgoing victory in the work of 
foreign missions. We can have both if we will pay the 
price; and the price is prayer—real prayer, determined 
prayer, protracted prayer, heart-wringing, crying to God 
in the power of the Holy Spirit! 


IV 


BOW, LO PRAY SOAS TOVGHT WHAT YOU 
ASK 


“But prayer was made earnestly of the church unto 
God for him.”—Acts 12:5 R. V. 


O UR subject is, ‘““ How to Pray so as to Get what 


You Ask.” I can think of nothing more impor- 

tant than that that I could tell you. Suppose it 
had been announced that I was to tell the business men of 
Los Angeles how they could go to any bank in the city 
and get all the financial accommodation they desired any 
day in the year, and suppose, also, that I knew that secret 
and could really tell it, do you think that the business men 
of this city would consider that important? It would be 
difficult to think of anything that they would consider 
more important. But praying is going to the bank, going 
to the bank that has the largest capital of any bank in the 
universe, the Bank of Heaven, a bank whose capital is 
absolutely unlimited. And if I can show you this morning 
how you can go to the Bank of Heaven any day in the 
year, and any hour of the day or night, and get from that 
bank all that you desire, that will certainly be of incal- 
culable importance. 

Now the Bible tells us that very thing. It tells us how 
we can go to the Bank of Heaven, how we can go to 
God in prayer ahy day of the year and any hour of the 
day or night, and get from God the very things that we 
ask. What the Bible teaches along this line has been put 

69 


70 HOW TO PRAY 


to the test of practical experiment by tens of thousands 
of people, and has been found in their own experience to 
be absolutely true. And that is what we are to discover 
this morning from a study of God’s own Word. 

In the twelfth chapter.of the Acts of the Apostles we 
have the record of a most remarkable prayer, remarkable 
because of what was asked for and remarkable because 
of the results of the asking. King Herod had killed 
James, the brother of John. This greatly ‘ pleased the 
Jews; so he proceeded further to arrest the leader of 
the whole Apostolic company, the Apostle Peter, with the 
intention of killing him also. But the arrest was during 
Passover Week, the Holy Week of the Jews; and, while 
the Jews were perfectly willing to have Peter assassinated, 
eager to have him assassinated, they were not willing to 
have their Holy Week desecrated by his violent death. 
So Peter was cast into prison to be kept until the Passover 
Week was over, and then to be executed. The Passover 
Week was nearly over, it was the last night of the Pass- 
over Week, and early the next morning Peter was to be 
taken out and beheaded. 

There seemed to be little hope for Peter, indeed no hope 
at all. He was in a secure dungeon, in an impregnable 
fortress, guarded by sixteen soldiers, and chained by each 
wrist to a soldier who slept on either side of him. There 
appeared to be no hope whatever for Peter. But the. 
Christians in Jerusalem undertook to get Peter out of his 
perilous position, to completely deliver him. How did 
they go at it? Did they organize a mob and storm the 
castle? No, there was no hope whatever of success along 
that line, the castle was impregnable against any mob, and, 
furthermore, garrisoned by trained Roman soldiers who 
would be more than a match for any mob. Did they cir- 


HOW TO PRAY 71 


culate a petition and get the names of the leading Chris- 
tians in Jerusalem signed to it to present to Herod, asking 
that he would release Peter? No. That might have had 
weight ; for the Christians in Jerusalem at that time were 
numbered by the thousands and among them were not a 
few influential persons, and a petition signed by so many 
people and by some people of such weight, would have 
had influence with a wily politician such as Herod was. 
But they did not attempt that method of deliverance. 
Did they take up a collection and gather a large amount 
of money from the believers in Jerusalem to bribe Herod 
to release Peter? Quite likely that might have proved 
successful; for Herod was open to that method of ap- 
proachment. But they did not do that. 

What did they do? They held a prayer-meeting to pray 
Peter out of prison. Was anything apparently more futile 
and ridiculous ever undertaken by a company of fanatics? 
Praying a man so securely incarcerated, and so near his 
execution, out of prison? If the enemies of Peter and 
the Church had known of that attempt they doubtless 
would have been greatly amused, and laughed at the 
thought of these fanatical Christians praying Peter out 
of prison; and would doubtless have said to one another, 
“We'll see what will become of the prayers of these fool 
Christians.” 

But the attempt to pray Peter out of prison was entirely 
successful. Apparently Peter himself had no fears, but 
was calmly resting in God; for he was fast asleep on the 
very eve of his proposed execution. While Peter was 
sound asleep, guarded by the sixteen soldiers, chained to 
a soldier sleeping on either side of him, suddenly there 
shone in the prison a light, a light from Heaven; and 
there could have been seen standing by Peter “an angel 


(2 HOW TO PRAY 


9 


of God.” The angel “smote Peter on the side” as he 
slept and wakened him and said, “Arise up quickly.” In- 
stantly Peter’s chains fell from his hands and he arose 
to his feet. The angel said to him, “ Gird thyself, and 
bind on thy sandals.” Peter did so, and then the angel 
said, “Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me.” 
Peter, dazed and wondering, thought he was dreaming; 
but he was wise enough to obey God even in his sleep 
and he went out and followed the angel, though he 
“thought he saw a vision.” The soldiers were all asleep, 
and unprevented they passed the first guard and the second 
guard and came to the strong iron gate that led into the 
city. Moved by the finger of God, the gate “ opened to 
them of its own accord.” ‘They went out and silently 
passed through one street. 

Now Peter was safe and the angel left him. Standing 
there in the cold night air, Peter came to himself, and 
realized that he was not dreaming; and said, “ Now I 
know of a truth, that the Lord has sent forth His angel 
to deliver me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the 
expectation of the people of the Jews.” Stopping a few 
moments to reflect, he said to himself, “ There is a prayer- 
meeting going on. It must be at Mark’s mother’s house, 
I will go there.” And soon the pray-ers are startled by a 
heavy pounding at the outside gate of Mark’s mother’s 
home. There was a little servant girl named Rhoda 
kneeling among the pray-ers. Instantly she sprang to her 
feet and rushed to the gate, saying to herself, “ That’s 
Peter! That’s Peter! I knew God would hear our 
prayers. God has delivered him, and he is at the gate.” 
Reaching the gate she excitedly cried, “Is that you, 
Peter?” “Yes.” Forgetting to even open the gate, 
and leaving Peter standing outside, she dashed back and 


HOW TO PRAY 13 


said to the startled pray-ers, “Our prayers are answered— 
Peter is at the gate.” “Oh, Rhoda, you are crazy,” cried 
the unbelieving company. “ No,” Rhoda said, “Iam not 
crazy. It is Peter. God has answered our prayers. I 
know his voice. I knew he would come and he is here.” 
Then they all cried, “It is not Peter, it is his ghost. He 
has been killed in the night and his ghost has come around 
and is rapping at the gate.” But Peter kept on knocking 
and they opened the gate, and there Peter stood, the living 
evidence that God had answered their prayer. 

By the way, have you ever noticed that among all the 
company that were present at that prayer-meeting only 
one person is mentioned by name, and that one person 
only a servant girl, Rhoda? Doubtless the bishops and 
elders of the Church in Jerusalem were there, but not a 
single name of theirs has gone down. Probably some of 
the leading people of Jerusalem, who had now become 
Christians, were there, but not a single name is mentioned. 
“ Rhoda,” and Rhoda only. Why? Because Rhoda was 
the only one who really had faith and was therefore the 
only one worth mentioning, even though she was only a 
servant girl. “ Rhoda” means rose, and this Rhoda was 
a rose that was very fragrant to God, although she was 
only a servant girl; for there is no sweeter fragrance to 
God than the fragrance of faith. 

Now if we can find out how these people prayed, then 
we shall know just how we too can pray so as to get 
what we ask. In the fifth verse we are told exactly how 
they prayed. Let me read it to you. “ Prayer was made 
without ceasing of the church unto God for him.” The 
whole secret of prevailing prayer, the prayer that gets 
what it asks, is found in four phrases in this brief descrip- 
tion of their prayer. The first phrase is, “‘ Without ceas- 


74 HOW TO PRAY 


ing.” The second, “ Of the Church.” The third, “ Unto 
God." “Fhe tourth,)" for him. 


TSUN TO Gone 


Let us take up these four phrases and study them. We 
take up first the third phrase, for it is really the most 
important one, “ Unto Gop.” The prayer that gets what 
it asks is the prayer that is Unto Gop. But someone 
will say, “Is not all prayer unto God?” No. Compara- 
tively few of the prayers that go up from this earth today 
are really unto God. I sometimes think that not one 
prayer in a hundred is really “unto God.” You ask, 
“What do you mean?”’ JT mean exactly what I say, that 
not one prayer in a hundred is really unto God. ‘ Oh,” 
you say, “I know what you mean. You are talking about 
the prayers of the heathen unto their idols and their false 
gods.” No, I mean the prayers of people who call them- 
selves Christians, I do not think that one in a hundred 
of them are really unto God. “Oh,” you say, “I know 
what you mean. You are talking of the prayers of the 
Roman Catholics unto the Virgin Mary and unto the 
saints.’ No, I mean the prayers of people who call them- 
selves Protestants. I do not believe that one in a hundred 
of the prayers of Protestant believers are really unto God. 
“What do you mean?” you ask. I mean exactly what 
I say. 

Stop a moment and think. Is it not often the case 
when men stand up to pray in public, or kneel down to 
pray in private, that they are thinking far more of what 
they are asking for than they are of the great God who 
made Heaven and earth, and who has all power, of whom 
they are asking it? Is it not often the case that in our 
prayers we are not thinking much either of what we are 


HOW TO PRAY 75 


asking for or of Him from Whom we are asking it, but 
our thoughts are wandering off wool gathering every- 
where? We take the name of God upon our lips but there 
is no real conscious approach to God in our hearts. We 
are really taking the name of God in vain while we fancy 
we are praying to Him. If there is to be any power in 
our prayer, if our prayer is to get anything, the first 
thing to be sure of when we pray ‘is that we have really 
come into the presence of God, and are really speaking 
to Him. We should never utter one syllable of prayer, 
either in public or in private, until we are definitely con- 
scious that we have come into the presence of God and 
are actually praying to Him. Oh, let those two words, 
“Unto God,” “ Unto God,’ “ Unto Gop,” sink deep into 
your heart; and from this time on never pray, never utter 
one syllable of prayer, until you are sure that you have 
come into the presence of God and are really talking to 
Him. 

Some years ago in our church in Chicago, before we 
began the great Saturday night prayer-meetings to pray 
for a world-wide revival, a little group of us used to 
meet every Saturday night for prayer, to pray for God’s 
blessing upon the work of the morrow. Never more than 
a handful of people came, but we had wonderful times 
of blessing. One night after we had gathered together, 
I arose to open the meeting and said to those gathered 
there, ‘ Now we are going to kneel in prayer and every 
one of you feel at perfect liberty to ask for what God 
puts into your heart to ask for; but be sure that you do 
not utter a word of prayer until you have really come into 
the presence of God, and know that you are talking to 
Him.” Then we knelt in prayer. A friend of mine, 
a business man, had come in just before I said that. One 


16 HOW TO PRAY 


day the following week I met him and he said to me, “ Mr. 
Torrey, I ought to be ashamed to confess it, but do you 
know that that thought you threw out last Saturday night 
just before we knelt in prayer, that not one of us should 
utter a syllable of prayer until we had really come into 
the presence of God and knew that we were talking to 
Him, was an entirely new thought to me and it has trans- 
formed my prayer life?’ I could easily understand that; 
for I can remember when that thought transformed my 
prayer life. I was brought up to pray. I was taught to 
pray so early in life that I have not the slightest recol- 
lection of who taught me to pray. I have no doubt it was 
my mother, but I have no recollection of it. In my earliest 
days the habit of prayer was so thoroughly ingrained into 
me that there has never been a single night of my life 
as far back as my memory goes, that I have not prayed; 
with the exception of one night when I was carried home 
unconscious and did not regain consciousness until the 
next morning. 

Even when I had wandered far from God, and had 
definitely decided that I would not accept Jesus Christ; 
nevertheless, I prayed every night. Even when I had come 
to a place where I doubted whether the Bible was the 
Word of God, and whether Jesus Christ was the Son 
of God, and even doubted whether there were a personal 
God; nevertheless, I prayed every night. I am glad that 
I was brought up that way, and that the habit of prayer 
was so instilled into me that it became habitual; for it 
was along that line that I came back out of the darkness 
of agnosticism into the clear light of an intelligent faith 
in God and His Word. Nevertheless, prayer was largely 
a mere matter of form. There was little real thought of 
God, and no real approach to God. And even after I 


HOW TO PRAY 77 


was converted, yes, even after I had entered the min- 
istry, prayer was largely a matter of form. But the day 
came when [ realized what real prayer meant, realized 
that prayer was having an audience with God, actually 
coming into the presence of God and asking and getting 
things from Him. And the realization of that fact trans- 
formed my prayer life. Before that prayer had been a 
mere duty, and sometimes a very irksome duty, but from 
that time on prayer has been not merely a duty but a 
privilege, one of the most highly esteemed privileges of 
life. Before that the thought that I had was, “ How much 
time must I spend in prayer?” The thought that now 
possesses me is, “ How much time may I spend in prayer 
without neglecting the other privileges and duties oi 
lite ch, 

Suppose some Englishman were summoned to Buck- 
ingham Palace to meet King George. He answers the 
summons and is waiting in the anteroom to be ushered 
into the presence of the King. What do you think that 
man would say to himself as he waited to be brought into 
the presence of the King? Do you think he would say, 
“IT wonder how much time I must spend with the King?” 
No, indeed ; he would rather think, “I wonder how much 
time the king will give me.” But prayer is having an 
audience with the King of kings, that eternal, omnipotent 
King in comparison with whom all earthly kings are as 
nothing; and would any intelligent person that realizes 
that fact ever ask himself, “ How much time must I 
spend in prayer?” No, our thought will be, “ How much 
time may I spend in prayer, how much time will the King 
give me?” 

So let these two words, “ Unto God,” sink deep into 
your heart and govern your prayer life from this day on. 


48 HOW TO PRAY 


Whenever you kneel in prayer, or stand in prayer, whether 
it be in public or in private, be absolutely sure before 
you utter a syllable of prayer that you have actually come 
into the presence of God and are really speaking to Him. 
Oh, it is a wondrous secret. 

But at this point a question arises. How can we come 
into the presence of God, and how can we be sure that 
we have come into the presence of God, and that we are 
really talking to Him? Some years ago I was speaking 
upon this verse of Scripture in Chicago, and at the close 
of the address a very intelligent Christian woman, one 
of the most intelligent and deeply spiritual women I ever 
knew, came to me and said, “Mr. Torrey, I like that 
thought of ‘Unto God,’ but how can we come into the 
presence of God and how can we be absolutely sure that 
we have come into the presence of God, and that we are 
really talking to Him?” It was a wise question and a 
question of great importance; and it is clearly answered in 
the Word of God. There are two parts to the answer. 

1. You will find the first part of the answer in the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter ten, verse nineteen, “ Hav- 
ing therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest 
by the blood of Jesus’? That is the first part of the 
answer. We come into the presence of God “by the 
blood of Jesus’: and we can come into the presence of 
God in no other way. Just what does that mean? It 
means this: You and I are sinners, the best of us are 
great sinners, and God is infinitely holy, so holy that even 
the Seraphim, those wonderful “ burning ones” (for that 
is what Seraphim means, burning ones), burning in their 
own intense holiness, must veil their faces and their 
feet in His presence. (Is. 6:2.) But our sins have been 
laid upon another, upon the Lord Jesus when He died 


HOW TO PRAY 79 


upon the cross of Calvary and made a perfect atonement 
for our sins. When He died there He took our place, 
the place of rejection by God, the place of the “ curse,” 
and the moment we accept Him and believe God’s testi- 
mony concerning His blood, that by His shed blood He 
made perfect atonement for our sin, and trust God to 
forgive and justify us because the Lord Jesus died in 
our place, that moment our sins are forgiven and we are 
reckoned righteous and enter into a place above the Sera- 
phim, the place of God’s only and perfect Son, Jesus Christ. 
And we do not need to veil our faces or our feet when 
we come into His presence, for we are made perfectly 
“accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6). To “ enter into 
the holiest” then, to come into the very presence of God, 
“by the blood of Jesus,’ means that when we draw near 
to God we should give up any and every thought that we 
have any acceptability before God in ourselves, we must 
realize that we are miserable sinners, but we must also 
believe that every sin of ours has been atoned for by the 
shed blood of Jesus Christ, and therefore come “ with 
boldness ” into the very presence of God, “ into the holiest, 
by the blood of Jesus.” The best man or woman on earth 
cannot come into the presence of God on the ground of 
any merit of his own, not for one moment; nor get any- 
thing from God on the ground of his own goodness, 
not even the smallest blessing. But on the ground of the 
shed blood of Jesus Christ the vilest sinner who ever 
walked this earth, who has turned from his sin and 
accepted Jesus Christ and trusts in the shed blood as 'the 
ground of his acceptance before God, can come into the 
presence of God any day of the year, and any hour of 
the day or night, and with perfect boldness speak out every 


80 HOW TO PRAY 


longing of his heart and get what he asks from God. Isn't 
that wonderful? Yes, and, thank God, it is true. 

The Christian Scientist cannot really pray. What they 
call prayer is simply meditation or concentration of 
thought. It is not asking a personal God for a definite 
blessing; indeed, Mrs. Eddy denies the existence of a 
personal God and she denies the atoning efficacy of the 
blood. She said that the blood of Jesus Christ when 
it was shed on the cross of Calvary, did no more good 
than when it was running in His veins. So a Christian 
Scientist cannot really pray; he is not on praying ground. 

Neither can a Unitarian really pray. Oh, he can take 
the name of God upon his lips and call Him Father, and 
say beautiful words, but there is no real approach to God. 
Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said, “I am the Way, 
the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, 
but by (more literally, through) Me.’ Some years ago I 
was on a committee in Chicago of three persons, one of 
whom was one of the leading Unitarian ministers of the 
city. He was a charming man in many ways. One day 
at the close of our committee meeting this Unitarian min- 
ister turned to me and said, “ Brother Torrey, I often 
come over to your church to hear you.” I replied, “I 
am very glad to hear it.” Then he continued, “I specially 
love to go to your prayer-meetings. Often of a Friday 
night I drop into your prayer-meeting and sit down by 
the door, and I greatly enjoy it.” I replied, “I am glad 
that you do. But tell me something. Why don’t you have 
a prayer-meeting in your own church?” “ Well,” he said, 
“you have asked me an honest question and I will give 
you an honest answer. Because I can’t. I thave tried 
it and it has failed every time.” Of course it failed, they 


HOW TO PRAY 81 


had no ground of approach to God—they denied the 
atoning blood. 

But there is many a supposedly orthodox Christian, and 
often in these days even supposedly orthodox ministers 
who deny the atoning blood. They do not believe that 
the forgiveness of our sins is solely and entirely on the 
ground of the shedding of Jesus’ blood as an atonement 
for sin on our behalf on the cross of Calvary; and, there- 
fore, they cannot really pray. There are not a few who 
call the theology that insists upon the truth so very clearly 
taught in the Word of God, of the substitutionary char- 
acter of Christ’s death and that we are saved by the 
shedding of His blood, a “theology of the shambles ” 
(that is, of the butcher shop). 

Mr. Alexander and I were holding meetings in the 
Royal Albert Hall in London. I received through the 
mail one day one of our hymn books that some man had 
taken from the meeting, and gone through it and cut out 
every reference to the blood of Christ. With the hymn 
book was an accompanying letter, and in this letter the 
man said, “I have gone through your hymn book and 
cut out every reference to the blood in every place where 
it is found, and I am sending this hymn book back to you. 
Now sing your hymns this way with the blood left out 
and there will be some sense in them.” I took the hymn 
book to the meeting with me that afternoon and displayed 
it; it was a sadly mutilated book. I read the man’s letter, 
and then I said, “ No, I will not cut the blood out of my 
hymnology, and I will not cut the blood out of my the- 
ology, for when I cut the blood out of my hymnology 
and my theology I will have to cut all access to God out 
of my experience.” No, men and women, you cannot 
approach God on any other ground than the shed blood, 


82 HOW TO PRAY 


and until you believe in the blood of Jesus Christ as a 
perfect atonement for your sins, and as the only ground 
upon which you can find forgiveness and justification, real 
prayer is an impossibility. 

2. You will find the second part of the answer to the 
question, How can we come into the presence of God 
and how can we be sure that we have come into His pres- 
ence, in Ephesians 2: 18, “ For through him we both have 
our access in one Spirit unto the Father.” Here we have 
the same thought that we have already had, that we have 
just been presenting, that it is “through Him,” that 1s, 
through Jesus Christ, we ‘have our access to the Father; 
but we have an additional thought also, the thought that 
while we come into the presence of God through Jesus 
Christ, we come “in” the One Spirit, that is the Holy 
Spirit. Just what does that mean? It means this: It is 
the work of the Holy Spirit, when you and I pray, to 
take us by the hand as it were and lead us into the very 
presence of God and introduce us to Him, and to make 
God real to us as we pray. The Greek word translated 
“access” is the exact equivalent in its etymology of the 
word “introduction,” which is really a Latin word trans- 
literated into English. As I say, it ts the work of the 
Holy Spirit to introduce us to God, that is, to lead us into 
God’s presence, and to make God real to us as we pray 
(or return thanks, or worship). And when we pray, in 
order that we may really come into the presence of God 
and be sure that we have come into His presence, we must 
look to the Holy Spirit to make God real to us as we pray. 

Have you never had this experience, that when you 
knelt to pray it seemed as if there were no one there, as 
if you were just talking into the air, or into empty space? 
What shall we do at such a time as that? Shall we stop 


HOW TO PRAY 83 


praying and wait until some time when we feel like pray- 
ing? No, when we least feel like praying, and when God 
is least real to us, that is the time we most need to pray. 
What shall we do then? Simply be quiet and look up 
to God and ask God to fulfill His promise and to send 
His Holy Spirit to lead us into His presence and to make 
Him real to us, and then wait and expect. And He will 
come, and He will take us into God’s presence, and He 
will make God real to us. I can testify today that some 
of the most wonderful seasons of prayer I have ever had, 
have been times when as I first knelt to pray I had no 
real sense of God. There seemed to be no one there, I 
seemed as if I were talking into empty space; and then I 
have just looked up to God and asked Him and trusted 
Him to send His Holy Spirit to teach me to pray, to lead 
me into His presence, and to make Him real to me, and 
the Spirit has come, and He has made God so real to 
me that it almost seemed that if I opened my eyes I could 
see Him, in fact I did see Him with the eyes of my soul. 

One night at the close of a sermon in Chicago in one 
of the churches on the South Side, I went down the aisle 
to speak to different individuals. I stepped up to a mid- 
dle-aged man and said to him, “Are you a Christian?” 
“No,” he replied, “I am an infidel. Did you ever see 
God?” I quickly replied, “ Yes, I have seen God.” The 
man was startled and silenced. Did I mean that I had 
seen God with these eyes of my body? No. But, thank 
God, I have two pair of eyes; not only does my body 
have eyes, but my spirit also has eyes. I pity the person 
who has only one pair of eyes, no matter how good those 
eyes are. I thank God I have two pair of eyes, these 
bodily eyes with which I see you, and the eyes of my 
spirit with which I see God. God has given me wonder- 


84 HOW TO PRAY 


ful eyes for my body, that at sixty-seven years of age 
I have never had to wear glasses, and do not know what 
it means to have my eyes weary or painful under any 
circumstances. But I will gladly give up these eyes rather 
than those other eyes that God has given me, the eyes 
with which I see God. 

This then is the way to come into the presence of God 
and to be sure that we have come into His presence: First, 
to come by the blood; second, to come in the Holy Spirit, 
looking to the Holy Spirit to lead us into the presence 
of God, and to make God real to us. 

Let me call your attention in passing to the great prac- 
tical importance of the doctrine of the Trinity. There 
are many who think that the doctrine of the Trinity is a 
purely abstract, metaphysical and utterly impractical doc- 
trine. Not at all. It involves our whole spiritual life, 
and it is of the highest importance in the very practical 
matter of praying. We need God the Father to pray to; 
we need Jesus Christ the Son to pray through; and we 
need the Holy Spirit to pray in. It is the prayer that is 
to God the Father, through Jesus Christ the Son, under 
the guidance and in the power of the Holy Spirit, that 
God the Father answers. 


Il. Wrursa INTENSE EARNESTNESS 


Now let us consider another of the four phrases used 
in Acts 12:5, that contain the whole secret of prevailing 
prayer, the two words “ Without Ceasing,” “ Prayer was 
made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him.” 
If you have the Revised Version you will notice that it 
reads differently, that it reads in this way, “ Prayer was 
made earnestly of the Church unto God for him.” The 
word “earnestly” comes far nearer giving the force of 


HOW TO PRAY 85 


6 


the original than the words “ without ceasing,” but even 
earnestly does not give the full force of the Greek word 
used. The Greek word is “ ektends,’ and it means liter- 
ally “ stretched-out-edly.” You see how King James’ 
translators came to translate it “ without ceasing,” they 
thought of the prayer as stretched out a long time, un- 
ceasing prayer. But that is not the thought at all. The 
Greek word is never used in that sense anywhere in the 
New Testament, and I do not know of a place in Greek 
literature outside of the Bible where it is so used. The 
word is a pictorial word, as so many words are. It repre- ~ 
sents the soul stretched out in the intensity of its earnest- 
ness toward God. 

Did you ever see a foot raceP The racers are all toe- 
ing the mark waiting for the starter to say “go,” or to 
crack the revolver as a signal to start. As the critical 
moment approaches everything about the runners becomes 
more and more tense, until when the word “go” comes, 
or the revolver cracks, they go spinning down the track 
with every nerve and muscle stretched toward yonder 
goal, and sometimes the veins stand out on the fore- 
head like’ whipcords—every runner would be the winner. 
That is the picture, the soul stretched out in intense 
earnestness toward God. | 

It is the same word that is used in the comparative 
mood in Luke 22:44, where we read, ‘And being in an 
agony he prayed more earnestly (literally, more stretched- 
out-edly) ; and his sweat was as it were great drops of 
blood falling down to the ground.” The thought is, as 
I have said, of the soul being stretched out toward God 
in intense earnestness of desire. 

Probably the most accurate translation that could be 
given in a single word would be “ intensely,” “ Prayer was 


86 HOW TO PRAY 


made intensely of the church unto God for him.” In 
fact the word “intensely” is from the same root, only it 
has a different prefix. In the 1911 Bible the passage is 
translated “Instant and earnest prayer was made of the 
church unto God for -him,” which is not a bad para- 
phrase though it is not a translation. And “ intensely 
earnest prayer was made of the church unto God for 
him,” would be an even better rendering. 

It is the intensely earnest prayer to which God pays 
attention, and which He answers. This thought comes 
out again and again in the Bible. We find it even in the 
Old Testament, in Jer. 29:13, “ Ye shall seek me, and 
find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” 
We here discover the reason why so many of our prayers 
are unheard of God. There is so little heart in them, 
so little intensity of desire for the thing asked, that there 
is no reason why God should pay any attention to them. 
Suppose I should ask all of you if you prayed this morn- 
ing? Doubtless almost every one of you would reply, 
“Yes, I did.’ Then suppose I should ask you again, 
“For what did you pray this morning?” I fear that 
some of you would hesitate and ponder and then have 
to say, “ Really, I forget for what I did pray this morn- 
ing.” Well, then, God will forget to answer. But if I 
should ask some of you if you prayed this morning you 
would say, “yes.” Then if I asked you for what you 
prayed you could tell me at once, for you always pray 
for the same thing. You have just a little rote of prayer 
that you go through each morning or each night. You 
fall on your knees, go through your little prayer auto- 
matically, scarcely thinking of what you are saying, in 
fact oftentimes you do not think of what you are saying 
but are thinking of a dozen other things while you are 


HOW TO PRAY 87 


repeating your prayer. Such prayer is profanity, taking 
the name of God in vain. 

When Mrs. Torrey and I were in India, she went up 
to Darjeeling, in the Himalayas, on the borders of Thibet. 
I was unable to go because of being so busy with meet- 
ings in Calcutta. When she came back she brought with 
her a Thibetan praying wheel. Did you ever see one? A 
little round brass cup on the top of a stick, and the cup 
revolving when the stick was whirled. The Thibetan 
writes out his prayers, drops them into the cup, and then 
whirls the stick and the wheel goes round and the prayers 
are said. That is just the way a great many Americans 
pray, only the wheel is in their head instead of being on 
the top of a stick. They kneel down and rattle through a 
rote of prayer, day after day the same thing, with scarcely 
any thought of what they are praying for. That kind of 
prayer is profanity, “taking the name of God in vain,” 
and it has no power whatever with God. It is a pure 
waste of time, or worse than a waste of time. 

But if I should ask some of you what you prayed for 
this morning you could tell me, for as you were in prayer 
the Spirit of God came upon you and with a great heart- 
ache of intensity of desire you cried to God for that thing 
that you must have. Well, God will hear your prayer 
and give you what you asked. 

If we are to pray with power we must pray with intense 
earnestness, throw our whole soul into the prayer. This 
thought comes out again and again in the Bible. For 
example, we find it in Romans 15:30, “ Now I beseech 
you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for 
the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in 
your prayers to God for me.” The word translated 
“ strive together ” in this verse is “ sunagonizo.” “Agon- 


88 HOW TO PRAY 


izo’’ means to “ contend” or “strive” or “ wrestle” or 
“fight.” And this verse could be properly translated, 
“Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s 
sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye wrestle to- 
gether with me in your*prayers to God for me.” 

We hear a great deal in these days about “the rest 
of faith,” by which men usually mean that we should take 
things very calmly in our Christian life, and when we 
pray we should simply come into God’s presence like a 
little child and quietly and trustfully ask Him for the 
thing desired and count it ours, and go away very calmly 
and reckon the thing ours. Now there is a truth in that, 
a great truth; but it is only one side of the truth, and 
a truth usually has two sides. And the other side of the 
truth is this, that there is not only “the rest of faith” 
but there is also the “fight of faith,’ and my Bible has 
more to say about “the fight of faith” than it does about 
“the rest of faith.” The thought of wrestling or fighting 
_ in prayer is not the thought that we have to wrestle with 
God to make God willing to grant our prayers. No, 
“our wrestling is . . . against the principalities, against 
the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, 
against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly 
places”? (Eph. 6: 12), against the Devil and all his mighty 
forces, and there is no place where the Devil so resists 
us as when we pray. Sometimes when we pray it seems 
as if all the forces of hell swept in between us and God. 
What shall we do? Give up? No! A thousand times, 
No! Fight the thing through on your knees, wrestle in 
your prayer to God, and win. 

Some years ago I was attending a Bible conference in 
Dr. James H. Brooks’ old church in St. Louis. On the 
program was one of the most distinguished and most 


HOW TO PRAY 89 


gifted Bible teachers that America ever produced, and he 
was speaking this day on “ The Rest of Faith.” In his 
address he said, “I challenge anybody to show me a 
single passage in the Bible where we are told to wrestle 
in prayer.” Now one speaker does not like to contradict 
another, but here was a challenge and I was sitting on 
the platform, and I was obliged to take it up. So I said 
in a low tone of voice, ‘ Romans 15:30, brother.” He 
was good Greek scholar enough to know that I had him, 
and what is more rare, he was honest enough to own it up 
on the spot. Yes, the Bible bids us “ wrestle in prayer ” 
and it is the prayer in which we actually wrestle in the 
power of the Holy Spirit that wins out with God. The 
word which is the root of the word translated “ strive 
together,” is agoné, from which our word agony comes. 
In fact in Luke 22: 44, to which I have already referred, 
this is the very word that is translated agony, “And being 
in an agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat 
was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground.” 
Oh, that we might have more agonizing prayer. 

Turn now to Col. 4:12, 13, and you will find the same 
thought again, put in other words, “ Epaphras, who is one 
of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring 
fervently for you (The Revised Version translates instead 
of “laboring fervently for you,” “ striving for you,” the 
same word as we saw in Rom. 15:30) in prayers, that 
ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. 
For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you.” 
The words translated “great zeal” in this version are 
translated in the Revised Version, “ much labour,” which 
is an accurate translation, and the word translated 
“labour ” is a very strong word, it means intense toil, or, 
painful labour. Do you know what it means to toil in 


90 HOW TO PRAY 


prayer; to labour with painful toil in prayer? Oh, how 
easily most of us take our praying, how little heart we 
put into it, and how little it takes out of us, and how little 
it counts with God. 

The mighty men of God, who throughout the centuries 
have wrought great things by prayer, are the men who 
have had much painful toil in prayer. Take for example 
David Brainerd, that physically feeble but spiritual mighty 
man of God. Trembling for years on the verge of con- 
sumption, from which he ultimately died at an early age, 
David Brainerd felt led of God to labour among the North 
American Indians in the early days, in the primeval forests 
of Northern Pennsylvania, and sometimes of a winter 
night he would go out into the forest and kneel in the cold 
snow when it was a foot deep and so labour with God in 
prayer that he would be wringing wet with perspiration 
even out in the cold winter night hours. And God heard 
David Brainerd and sent such a mighty revival among the 
North American Indians as had never been heard of 
before, as indeed had never been dreamed of. And not 
only did God send in answer to David Brainerd’s prayers 
this mighty revival among the North American Indians, 
but also in answer to David Brainerd’s prayers he trans- 
formed David Brainerd’s father-in-law, Jonathan Ed- 
wards, that mighty prince of metaphysicians, probably 
the mightiest thinker that America has ever produced 
(the only American metaphysician whose name is in the 
American Hall of Fame), into Jonathan Edwards the 
flaming evangelist, who so preached on the subject of 
“ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” in the church 
at Enfield, in the power of the Holy Spirit, that the strong 
men in the audience felt as he preached as if the very 
floor of the church were falling out and they were sink- 


HOW TO PRAY 91 


ing into hell, and they sprang to their feet and threw 
their arms around the pillars of the church and cried to 
God for mercy. Ah, that we had more men who could 
pray like David Brainerd, then we would have more 
men that could preach like Jonathan Edwards. 

I once used this illustration of David Brainerd, speak- 
ing at a conference in New York State. Dr. Park, the 
grandson and biographer of Jonathan Edwards, was in 
my audience and he came to me at the close and said, 
“T have always felt that there was something abnormal 
about David Brainerd.” I replied, “ Dr. Park, it would 
be a'‘good thing for you and a good thing for me if we 
had a little more of that kind of abnormality.” Indeed 
it would; and it would be a good thing if many of us 
who are here this morning had that kind of so-called 
“abnormality ” that bows a man down with intensity of 
longing for the power of God, that would make us pray 
in the way that David Brainerd prayed. 

But a very practical question arises at this point. How 
can we get this intense earnestness in prayer? The Bible 
answers the question very plainly and simply. There are 
two ways of having earnestness in prayer, a right way 
and a wrong way. The wrong way is to work it up in 
the energy of the flesh. Have you never seen it done? 
A man kneels down by a chair to pray; he begins very 
calmly and then he begins to work himself up and begins 
to shout and scream and pound the chair, and sometimes 
he spits foam; and he screams until your head is almost 
splitting with the loud uproar. That is the wrong way, 
that is false fire; that is the energy of the flesh, which its 
an abomination to God. If possible that is even worse 
than the careless, thoughtless prayers of which I spoke 
a while ago. 


92 HOW TO PRAY 


But there is a right way to obtain real, heart-stirring, 
heart-wringing, and God-moving earnestness in prayer. 
What the right way is the Bible tells us. It tells us in 
Romans 8:26, 27 R. V., “ And in like manner the Spirit 
also helpeth our infirmity; for we know not how to pray 
as we ought; but the Spirit himself maketh intercession 
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and He 
that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the 
Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints ac- 
cording to the will of God.” That is the right way— 
look to the Spirit to create the earnestness. The earnest- 
ness that counts with God is not the earnestness that you 
or I work up; it is the earnestness that the Holy Spirit 
creates in our hearts. Have you never gone to God in 
prayer and there was no earnestness in your prayer at 
all, it was just words, words, words, a mere matter of 
form, there seemed to be no real prayer in your heart? 
What shall we do at such a time as that? Stop praying 
and wait until we feel more like praying? No. If there 
is ever a time when one needs to pray it is when he does 
not feel like praying. What shall we do? Be silent and 
look up to God to send His Holy Spirit, according to His 
promise, to move your heart to prayer and to awaken and 
create real earnestness in your heart in prayer: and He 
will send Him and you will pray with intense earnestness, 
very likely “ with groanings which cannot be uttered.” 

I wish to testify right here that some of the times of 
deepest earnestness that I have ever known in prayer 
have been when at the outset I seemed to have no prayer 
in my heart at all, and all attempt to pray was mere words, 
words, empty form. And then I have looked up to God 
to send His Spirit according to His promise to teach 
me to pray, and I waited and the Spirit of God has come 


HOW TO PRAY 93 


upon me in mighty power and I have cried to God, some- 
times with groanings which could not be uttered. 

I shall never forget a night in Chicago. After the gen- 
eral prayer-meetings for a world-wide revival had been 
going on for some time, the man who was most closely 
associated with me in the conduct of the meetings came 
over to my house one night after the meeting was over 
and said, “ Brother Torrey, what do you say to our having 
a time alone with God every Saturday night after the 
other meetings are over? I do not mean,” he continued, 
“that we will actually promise to come together every 
Saturday night; but let us have it tonight any way.” Oh, 
such a night of prayer as we had that night. I shall never 
forget that, but it was not that night that I am especially 
thinking of now. After we had been meeting some weeks 
he suggested that we invite in a few others, which we 
did; and every Saturday night after the general prayer- 
meeting was closed at ten o’clock we few would gather, 
in some secluded place where we would not disturb others, 
to pray together. There were never more than a dozen 
persons present, usually about six or seven. One night 
when we met to pray, before kneeling in prayer we told 
one another the things we desired especfally to ask of 
God that night, and then we knelt to pray and a long 
silence followed. No one prayed. And one of the little 
company looked up and said, “I cannot pray, there seems 
to be something resisting me.’’ Then another raised his 
head and said, ‘“‘ Neither can J pray, something seems to 
be resisting me.” We went around the whole circle and 
each one had the same story. 

What did we do? Break up the prayer-meeting? No. 
If we ever felt the need of prayer it was then, and quietly 
we all bowed before God and looked to Him to send His 


94 HOW TO PRAY 


Holy Spirit to enable us to pray to victory. And soon 
the Spirit of God came upon one and another and I have 
seldom heard such praying as I heard that night. And 
then the Spirit of God came upon me and led me out in 
such a prayer as I had never dreamed of praying. I was 
led to ask God that Hé would send me around the world 
preaching the Gospel, and give me to see thousands saved 
in China, in Japan, in Australia, in New Zealand, in Tas- 
mania, in India, in England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, 
France, and Switzerland; and when I finished praying that 
night I knew I was going, and I knew what I would see 
as well as I knew afterward when the actual report came 
of the mighty things that God had wrought. That prayer- 
meeting sent me around the world preaching the Gospel. 

Oh, that is how we must pray if we would get what 
we ask in prayer, pray with the intense earnestness that 
the Holy Ghost alone can inspire. 


I VOrcramcOGn tren 


Now let us look briefly at another one of the four 
phrases, the phrase “of the church.’ The prayer that 
God particularly delights to answer is united prayer. 
There is power in the prayer of a single individual, and 
the prayer of individuals has wrought great things, but 
there is far greater power in united prayer. Our Lord 
Jesus taught this same great truth in Matt. 8:19, 20, 
“Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on 
earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be 
done for them of My Father who ts in heaven.” God de- 
lights in the unity of His people, and He does everything 
in His power to promote that unity, and so He especially 
honours unity in prayer. There is power in the prayer 
of one true believer: there is far more power in the 


HOW TO PRAY 95 


united prayer of two, and greater power in the united 
prayer of still more. 

But it must be real unity. This comes out in the exact 
words our Lord uses; He says, “ If two of you shall agree 
on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall 
be done for them of my father who is in heaven,” It 
is one of the most frequently misquoted and most con- 
stantly abused promises in the whole Bible. It is often 
quoted as if it read this way, “Again I say unto you, that 
if two of you shall agree on earth to ask anything, it 
shall be done for them of My Father who is in Heaven.” 
But it actually reads, ‘“ Again I say unto you, that if two 
of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they 
shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father who 
is in Heaven.” Someone may say, “I do not see any 
essential difference.” Let me explain it to you. Someone 
else has a burden on his heart, he comes to you and 
asks you to unite with him in praying for this thing and. 
you consent, and you both pray for it. Now you are 
“agreed” in praying, but you are not agreed at all “as 
touching” the thing that you ask. He asks for it because 
he intensely desires it; you ask for it simply because he 
asks you to ask for it. You are not at ail agreed “as 
touching” the thing that you ask. But when God, by 
His Holy Spirit, puts the same burden on two hearts, 
and they thus in the unity of the Spirit pray for the same 
thing, there is not power enough on earth or in hell to 
keep them from getting it. Our Heavenly Father will do 
for them the thing that they ask. 


TMs HOR ELINE |) 


Now let us look at the fourth phrase, “ for him.’ The 
prayer was definite prayer for a definite person ; and that is 


96 HOW TO PRAY 


the kind of prayer God answers, DEFINITE PRAYER. 
Oh, how general and vague many of our prayers are. They 
are very pretty, they sound nicely, they are charmingly 
phrased, but they ask no definite specific thing, and they 
get no definite, specific.answer. When you pray to God, 
have a very definite, clear cut idea of just exactly what 
it is you want of God; and ask Him for that definite and 
specific thing; and, if you meet the other conditions of 
prevailing prayer, you will get that definite, specific thing 
which you asked. God’s answer will be just as definite as 
your prayer. 

In closing, let me call your attention to our dependence 
upon the Holy Spirit in all our praying, if we are to 
accomplish anything by our prayers. It is the Holy 
Spirit, as we saw in our study of the first phrase, Who 
enables us to really pray “unto God,’ Who leads us into 
the presence of God and makes God real to us. It is the 
Holy Spirit again Who gives us the intense earnestness 
in prayer that prevails with God. Still again it is the 
Holy Spirit Who brings us into unity so that we know 
the power of really united prayer. And it is the Spirit 
Who shows us the definite things for which we should 
definitely pray. 

To sum it all up, the prayer that God answers is the 
prayer that is to God the Father, that is on the ground 
of the atoning blood of God the Son, and that is under 
the direction and in the power of God the Holy Spirit. 


V 


WHO CAN PRAY SO. ASO) GEDA EAT 
ELEGY As ie 


“ And whatsoever we ask we receive of Him, because 
we keep His commandments and do the things that are 
pleasing in His sight.’—I Joun 3: 22, 


ESTERDAY afternoon we were studying together 

, to find out what God tells us in His Word as to 

How to Pray so as to Get What We Ask. This 
afternoon we take up the subject of “ Who Can Pray so 
as to Get What they Ask.” 

The impression that many people have is that all the 
promises in the Word of God in regard to His answering 
prayer are made to everybody, and that anybody can claim 
these promises ; but this is very far from the truth. God’s 
promises to answer prayer are made to certain specified 
persons, and God is very careful in His Word to tell us 
just who these persons are whose prayers He promises 
to answer. One of the most common sources of misinter- 
pretation of the Word of God is the taking of promises 
that are made to one class of people and applying them 
to an entirely different class. Of course, when this is 
done, and people to whom the promises were never made 
claim them, disappointment is the inevitable result; they 
do not get what they ask and they think that God’s promise 
has failed. But God’s promise has not failed: someone 
has claimed the fulfillment of that promise who had no 


right to take the promise as belonging to himself. God 
97 


98 WHO CAN PRAY 


tells us in the plainest possible words, words that any 
intelligent person can understand, just whose prayers it 
is He promises to answer. 

One of the most definite and plainest descriptions to be 
found in the Bible of whose prayers God will answer, is 
found in I John 3:22. Let me read it to you: “And what- 
soever WE ask we receive of him, because we keep his 
commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his 
sight.” 

Have you ever noticed what a remarkable statement 
the Apostle John makes in this verse? He says that what- 
ever he asked of God he got, “ Whatsoever we ask we 
recelve of him.” John here says he never asked one single 
thing of God but what he got that very thing he asked. 
How many of us could say that: “ Whatsoever I ask of 
God I get?” Many of us doubtless could say “ Many of 
the things I ask of God I get.” Others of us could say 
“some of the things I ask of God I get;” and some of us 
would probably have to say, “I do not know that I have 
ever gotten one thing I asked of God.” But John says 
“ Whatsoever I ask of God I get.” And then John goes 
on to tell us why he could say it, and by telling us why he 
could say it he tells us how we, too, can get into such a 
relation to God that we too can say, “ whatsoever I ask 
Ligeti 


I. Gop ANSWERS THE PRAYERS OF THOSE WHO KEEP 
His CoMMANDMENTS 


Let me read it to you again: “ Whatsoever we ask we 
receive of Him, because we keep His commandments and 
do the things that are pleasing in His sight.” Whenever 
you find the word “ because” in the Bible, or ‘‘ wherefore ” 
or “ therefore,” you should notice very carefully, for these 


WHO CAN PRAY 99 


words point out the reason of things. And John here says 
that the reason that God gave him whatever he asked was 
“because”’ he, and the others that he includes with him- 
self in the word “we,” keep His commandments and do 
the things that are pleasing in His sight. There are two 
parts to John’s description of those whose prayers God 
always answers. 

The first part of the description is, “ We keep His com- 
mandments.” God hears the prayers of those who “ keep 
His commandments,” that 1s, those who study His Wora 
each day to find out what His will is, and who, when they 
discover what His will is, do it every time they find 1t. 
God demands reciprocity : He demands that we shall listen 
to His Word before He listens to our prayers. If we 
have a sharp ear for God’s commandments, then God will 
have a sharp ear for our petitions; but if we turn a deai 
ear to one of God’s commandments, God will turn a deaf 
ear to every one of our petitions. If we do the things that 
God bids us to do, then God will do the things that we 
ask Him to do; but if we do not pay close attention to 
God’s Word, God will pay no attention whatever to our 
prayers. To put it all in a single sentence: If we wish 
God to answer our prayers, we must study God’s Word 
diligently each day, to find out what the will of God is, 
and do that will every time we find it. 

Here we touch upon one of the commonest reasons why 
prayers are not answered: those who pray are neglecting 
the study of the Word of God, or they are not studying 
it for the particular purpose of finding out what God’s 
will is for them, or else they are not doing that will every 


time they find it out. In my first pastorate there was a 
lady who was a constant attendant upon the services of 
the church, but who was not a member of the church. 


100 WHO CAN PRAY 


She was one of the most intelligent women in the com- 
munity. One day someone told me that this lady had 
formerly been a member of the church of which I was 
pastor. So one Sunday morning, as I was walking home 
from church, I walked along with this lady, who lived on 
the same street that I lived upon. When we reached my 
front gate and I was about to turn in, I said to her, “ They 
tell me you were formerly a member of this church of 
which'Iam pastor.” |. She replied) “0 Yes! ) was.) Welk 
I said, “‘ why are you not a member now?” She answered, 
“ Because I do not believe the Bible.” I said, “ Do not 
believe the Bible?” ‘“ No,” she said, “I do not believe 
the Bible.” I asked, “ Why do you not believe the Bible?” 
She replied, “ Because I have tried its promises and found 
them untrue.’’ I said, “ Will you tell me one single promise 
in the Word of God that you ever tried and found 
untrue?’’ She said, “ Does it not say somewhere in the 
Bible that whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray, 
believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them?” I 
said, “ It says something that sounds a good deal like that.” 
She said, “ My husband was very ill. I prayed for his 
recovery and I fully believed God would raise him up, 
but he died. Did not the promise fail?” 

“No, not at all,” I said. ‘ What?” she exclaimed, “ the 
promise did not fail?” “No,” I replied, “the promise 
did not fail.” ‘‘ But,” she said, “ does it not say that what 
things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye 
receive them and ye shall have them?” I said, “It says 
something that sounds a good deal like that.” ‘‘ Just what 
does it say?” I replied, “It says ‘ whatsoever things ye 
desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye 
shall have them.’ Are you one of the ‘ye’s’?” She said, 
“What do you mean?” I replied, “Are you one of the 


WHO CAN PRAY 101 


people to whom this promise is made?”’ “ Why,” she said, 
“isn’t it made to every professing Christian?” I said, 
“Certainly not. God defines very clearly in His Word just 
to whom His promises to answer prayer are made.” “I 
would like to see God’s definition,” she said. I said, ‘‘ Let 
me show it to you,” and I opened my Bible to I John 3: 22, 
and read, ““ Whatsoever we ‘ask we receive of him, because 
we keep his commandments and do the things that are 
pleasing to his sight.” Then I said, “ That is God’s defini- 
tion of the ‘we’s’ and the ‘ ye’s’ whose prayers God 
promises to answer; those who ‘keep His commandments 
and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.’ Were 
you keeping His commandments? Were you doing the 
things that are pleasing in His sight? Were you living 
for the glory of God in everything?” “No,” she said, 
“TI certainly was not.” “Then,” I said, “the promise 
was not made to you, was it?” ‘ No,” she said, “ it was 
Hote ee nen atedid not fail Pe?) 4" (Noj\ity didi noti) nohe 
saw her error and came back to God and became one of 
the most active and most useful members of that church. 

There are a multitude of men and women just like that 
woman: they take a promise that is made to someone else 
and apply it to themselves, and of course it fails. Are 
you one of the ye’s? That is, are you studying the word 
of God every day of your life, earnestly and carefully, 
to find out what is God’s will for you, and are you doing 
it every time you find it? If so, you are on praying 
ground and belong to the class whose prayers God will 
answer and give you what you ask. If not, you do not 
belong to the class whose prayers God promises to answer. 

I had another illustration of this same thing, in our 
church in Chicago. I had in my church two women, one 
the mistress, the other the maid. The mistress was a 


102 WHO CAN PRAY 


very earnest and a very intelligent Christian. One night 
at the close of a meeting the maid came to me and said, 
“ Miss W (that is, her mistress), thinks, Mr. Torrey, 
that I ought to have a talk with you.” “Why, Jennie, 
does Miss W think that you ought to have a talk 
with me?” “ Because I am in great perplexity.” I said, 
“What are you perplexed about?” She replied, “1 am 
perplexed because God does not answer my prayers.” 
“Oh,” I said, “there is nothing to be surprised about in 
that. Does God anywhere promise to answer your 
prayers? God does tell us very plainly in His Word whose 
prayers He will answer. Then I quoted again I John 
3:22: “ Whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because 
we keep his commandments and do the things that are 
pleasing in his sight.” ‘‘ Now, Jennie,” I said, “ does that 
describe you?” Are you studying the Word of God every 
day of your life to find out what God wishes you to do, 
and do you do it every time you find it?” “ No,” she 
replied, “I do not.” “ Then,” I said, “there is nothing 
mysterious, is there, about God’s not answering your 
prayers? 7), No,” shelsaid/iadnere, isnot.) 

I put the same question to each one of you. Are you 
studying the Word of God every day of your life to find 
out what the will of God is, and doing it every time you 
find it out? If you are, as J have said, you are on pray- 
ing ground, and God will heed your prayers and give 
you the things that you ask of Him; but if you are 
neglecting the study of the Word of God, to find out what 
His will is, or failing to do that will every time that you 
discover it, then you have no right whatever to expect 
God to answer your prayers. He does not promise to. 
Indeed, He distinctly says in His Word that He will not. 

Now, you may go right through your Bible and you 








WHO CAN PRAY 103 


will find, in regard to every one of the great promises of 
God to answer our prayers, that this same thought comes 
out, in the connection in which the promise is found. 
Take, for example, that wonderful promise of Jesus 
Christ to answer prayer, which is so often quoted and 
is so familiar to us all—John 14:13-14: “ And whatso- 
ever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the 
Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any- 
thing in my name I will do it.” Now, most people, when 
they quote this promise, stop there, and therefore get 
the impression that if anybody asks anything in Christ’s 
name, Jesus Christ offers to do it. But Jesus Christ did 
not stop there, He went on; and let me read on, or rather, 
let me read the promise again, and read on as I read the 
promise: 

“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will 
I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye 
ask anything in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, 
keep my commandments, (or, as the Revised Version 
reads, “If ye love me ye will keep my commandments ”’), 
and I will pray the Father and He will give you another 
Comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the 
Spirit of Truth: Whom the world cannot receive, because 
it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, 
for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” 

In other words, Jesus Christ said to His disciples that 
if they had that love to Him that led them to keep His 
commandments (that is, to study His Word and find out 
what His commandments were, and did them every time 
they discovered them) that He would pray the Father, 
and the Father, in answer to His prayers, would give 
them the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit would guide 
them in their prayers, so that they would pray “ accord- 


104 WHO CAN PRAY 


ing to the will of God,” and that whatsoever they (they 
who keep His commandments and were therefore led by 
the Holy Spirit) should ask in His Name, that He 
would do. 

Turn to another familiar promise—one of the most 
remarkable promises in the whole Bible regarding God’s 
answering prayer: John 15:9, “If ye abide in me, and 
my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it 
shall be done unto you.” This verse is constantly quoted 
as if it read “If ye abide in me, ye shall ask what ye 
will and it shall be done unto you,” but it does not so 
read. You have left out one of the most important 
clauses in the verse. Let me read it again as it really 
reads: “If ye abide in me, AND MY WORDS ABIDE IN YOU, 
ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.” 
So the Lord Jesus tells us that it is not only necessary 
that we abide in Him, but that His words abide in us, if 
we are to ask so as to get what we ask. 

Now, in order that Christ’s words may abide in us, 
we must study these words, must we not? Unless we 
get them in us, they certainly cannot stay in us, and 
we certainly cannot get Christ’s words in us unless we 
study them diligently. 

But it is not enough to get Christ’s words in us: His 
words must “abide” in us, that is, “stay’ in us, and there 
is only one possible way in which Christ’s words can stay 
in us, and that is by our diligently obeying them. Three 
verses further down in this same chapter Jesus says 
again, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide 
in my love, even as I have kept my Father's command- 
ments and abide in His love.” So you can go right 
straight through your Bible and you will find that every 
promise of God to answer our prayers is made to those 


WHO CAN PRAY 105 


who diligently study His Word in order that they may 
know His will, and who always obey His will every 
time they find it. Are you greatly perplexed as to why 
God does not give you the things you ask? There is 
no mystery at all about it; you are not studying God’s 
Word to find out His will for you, or else you are not 
doing it every time you find it. You are doing it in 
many instances, but there is some particular thing you 
are not doing that you know God wishes you to do, and 
there is not the slightest reason why you should expect 
God to answer your prayers. 


II. Gop ANSWERS THE PRAYERS OF THOSE WHO DO THE 
Tuincs THAT ARE PLEASING IN His SIGHT 


But it is not enough that we keep His command- 
ments. There is something further than that in the 
verse that we are studying. Let me read it to you 
again. I John 3:22: “ And whatsoever we ask we re- 
ceive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and 
[please notice that and; “and” is a little word but a 
very important word] do those things that are pleasing 
in his sight.’ It is not enough that we do the things 
that God specifically commands us to do; in addition 
to that, we must “do the things that are pleasing in 
his sight,” even though He has not commanded us to 
do them. There are many things that it would please 
God for us to do that He does not specifically command 
us to do. 7 

The idea that many people have of God’s govern- 
ment is this: that God is a great moral Governor, and 
that He lays down a lot of laws for us to obey: thou 
shalt do this, and thou shalt do this, and thou shalt do 
this, and thou shalt not do this, and thou shalt not do 


106 WHO CAN PRAY 


this, and thou shalt not do this; and that the whole of 
Christian duty lies in our doing the things that God 
specifically tells us to do, and leaving undone the things 
that God specifically tells us not to do. What a strange 
idea of God’s government! God is not a mere moral 
governor. He is that, but He is far more than that; 
something infinitely better than that. God is our 
Father. That is the very thought that lies at the very 
foundation of the Bible doctrine of prayer—the thought 
of the Fatherhood of God. And all these apparently 
philosophical and learned arguments that men bring 
against the doctrine of God’s answering prayer, from 
“the uniformity of law,’ and from “the established 
course of things in nature and in providence,” are all 
utterly foolish, and really unphilosophical (for all their 
ostentatious parade of being profoundly scientific and 
philosophical), because they lose sight of the great 
fundamental truth about God that lies at the very 
foundation of the Bible doctrine that God answers 
prayer—the truth that God is not merely a Creator and 
the Governor of the physical universe and the moral 
universe, but that God is our Father. 

Now, how does a father govern his children? Does 
he lay down a lot of laws—thou shalt do this, and thou 
shalt do this, and thou shalt do.this, and thou shalt 
not do this, and thou shalt not do this, and thou shalt 
not do this? Does he rest content when his children 
do the things that he specifically tells them to do, 
and leave undone the things he specifically tells them 
not to do? No, not if he is a wise father. If 
he is a wise father he will lay down some rules 
for the conduct of his children, which he, because 
of superior knowledge, knows to be wise, but those 


WHO CAN PRAY 107 


rules will not be so very many, and certainly he will 
not be content if his children simply obey those rules. 
No, the wise father expects his children to get thor- 
oughly acquainted with him, so that they know what 
pleases him instinctively and, when they know what 
pleases him, do it without waiting to be told. 

Take my own government of my children, and my 
wife’s government of our children. Did we lay down 
a lot of laws for our children to follow, as to what they 
should do and what they should not do? No, certainly 
not. We did lay down a few principles of action, which 
we, in our superior wisdom, knew to be best for our 
children, and we did not always explain to our children 
why we laid these laws down; for we wished our chil- 
dren to learn obedience to authority. In much of the 
home life of America today, and in much of the school 
life, and in much of our national life, we have entirely 
lost sight of the great and wholesome principle of 
AUTHORITY, and some of our modern would-be edu- 
cators tell us that we ought to explain everything that 
we command our children to do, in the home or in the 
school, and that we ought to let our children “ follow 
out their own individuality,” and “not enslave them by 
parental or school authority.” 

That is one of the most dangerous principles in mod- 
ern teaching. By it we are training a lot of Bolshevists 
—Bolshevists in the home, Bolshevists in the schools, 
and afterwards Bolshevists in society and in civil gov- 
ernment. If there is anything the present generation 
needs to learn, and that we, who are in authority of 
one kind or another, need to teach our children, it is 
the principle of rightful authority: the authority of the 
parent in the home, the authority of teachers in schools, 


108 WHO CAN PRAY 


and the authority of civil rulers in our government. 
So our children were taught to obey when they were 
told to do anything, without asking ““why.’ And it 
either their mother or their father had told our children 
to do anything, and they had not done it, we would not 
have known what to make of it; or if we had told them 
not to do anything and they had done it, we would not 
have known what to make of that; and I cannot recall 
an instance in many years in which our children dis- 
obeyed us in a single matter. 

But we were not satisfied with that. Over and above 
the few rules we laid down for the guidance of our chil- 
dren, we expected our children to get thoroughly ac- 
quainted with us, so that they would know instinctively 
what would please their father or their mother, and, 
when they knew it, do it without waiting to be told. 
We should have been very much grieved if our children 
had only done the things that pleased us when they 
were specifically told to do them. 

Let me give you a concrete instance. While we were 
living in Chicago, President McKinley and Commodore 
Dewey, after Commodore Dewey’s great victory at 
Manila, visited Chicago, and the people flocked into 
Chicago from all over Illinois and the adjacent states, 
until some of our streets were so crowded that you 
could scarcely get around. They wanted to see the 
President of the United States and the victorious Com- 
modore. Well, President McKinley and Commodore 
Dewey (afterwards Admiral Dewey), were to be in 
Chicago over Sunday, and the people wanted to see 
them on Sunday as well as on week-days. Now it 
would have been impossible to get up any ordinary 
“hurrah boys” on Sunday, even in Chicago; so, if 


WHO CAN PRAY 109 


Commodore Dewey and President McKinley were to 
be seen at all, at any gathering on Sunday, it must be 
a religious gathering. So the committee arranged for 
a religious gathering in the Auditorium (which accom- 
modated the largest audience of any building in Chicago 
at that time). It was not so much that they wanted 
religion, but they wanted an opportunity for the people 
to see Commodore Dewey and President McKinley, and 
nothing but a religious gathering would do for the 
Lord’s Day. 

The Auditorium at that time would seat seven or 
eight thousand people, and there were twenty or thirty 
thousand who wanted to go to the gathering, so as to 
see the President and the Commodore; so the com- 
mittee had a great problem on their hands, who would 
they admit and who would they exclude from the meet- 
ing? It was decided to ticket the meeting, but to whom 
would the tickets be distributed? The committee de- 
cided that as wisely as they could, and, as a part of the 
decision, they decided that they would send some of the 
tickets to the public schools of the city to be given to 
selected scholars. One of my daughters was attending 
one of the public schools in Chicago at the time. Her 
teacher called her up one day and said to her, “ Blanche, 
here are two tickets for the meeting at the Auditorium 
next Sunday, at which President McKinley and Com- 
modore Dewey will be present. I want to give them 
to you.” My daughter thanked her for her kindness 
and then said, “ Miss F , | think you better give the 
tickets to someone else.” “Why?” exclaimed Miss 
F , “why don’t you want the tickets, Blanche? 
Everybody wants to go.” My daughter replied, “I do 
not expect to go.” “Why don’t you expect to go?” 








110 WHO CAN PRAY 


“ Because I do not think that my father would like to 
have mes’ go.) But: said her (teacher) hasinyveus 
father told you not to go?” “Qh, no,” she replied, 
“my father has not told me not to go; in fact I do not 
know whether he even knows there is to be such a 
meeting, but I do not think he would like to have me 
go, and therefore I am not going.” 

This got to my ears, although my daughter did not 
tell me. Now, if she had asked me for anything about 
that time, I think she would have been likely to get it. 
She did not ask me for anything. Just so God expects 
of us that we shall get so thoroughly acquainted with 
Him, that we will know what would please Him and 
what would displease Him; and when we know what 
would please Him, do it every time, without waiting to 
be told, and when we know what would displease Him, 
refuse to do it, even though we are not specifically told 
not to do it. 

Now, when we thus are carefully considering in all 
our actions and in all our decisions as to our conduct, 
what would please God and what would displease God, 
and do every time the things we think would please 
Him, and refuse to do, every time, the things we think 
would displease Him, even though He has not specifi- 
cally told us to do the one, or leave undone the other, 
then God will listen to our prayers. If we always study 
to “do the things that are pleasing in His sight,’ He 
will always study to do the things that please us, and, 
therefore, grant our requests. Are you always, in all 
your decisions, carefully considering what would please 
or displease God, and doing every time the things that 
you think would please Him, and leaving undone every 
time the things that you think would displease Him, 


WHO CAN PRAY AG Ae 


whether He has told you to do the one or not to do the 
other, or not? 

Here we find a very simple way of deciding the ques- 
tions that are perplexing so many young Christians 
today, yes, and older Christians, too: for example, the 
question, “Shall Christians go to the theatre,” or 
“Shall Christians dance,” or “Shall Christians play 
cards,” or “ Shall Christians go to the movies,” etc., etc. 
Now the way a great many people seek to decide those 
questions is this. They ask, “Does God anywhere say 
in His Word, ‘ Thou shalt not go to the theatre,’ ‘ Thou 
shalt not dance,’ ‘Thou shalt not play cards’?” That 
is not the question. If you were a real loyal child of 
God you would not ask that question. The question is, 
“Will it please my Father?” “ Will it please God?” 

Take for example the question of the theatre. If I 
thought it would please God for me to go to the theatre, 
more than for me to stay away, I would go, no matter 
what anyone else might think of it, or what anyone 
else might do. But if I thought it would please God 
for me to stay away more than for me to go, I would 
stay away no matter who else went. 

When I lived in Chicago I frequently had sent to me 
complimentary tickets from different theatres, espe- 
cially from one of the highest class theatres, and with 
the tickets oftentimes would come a note saying that 
the play was of a very high moral character, and that 
Bishop So and So, in some other city, or Dr. So and So, 
highly approved of it and had gone to the play, and 
that they would be highly complimented if I would oc- 
cupy a box at the play. Now, I could not be caught 
by any such chaff as that. It made no difference to 
me what Bishop or Doctor So and So had done. The 


112 WHO CAN PRAY 


only question with me was, will it please God better for 
me to go than for me to stay away? And had I thought 
that it would please God better for me to go than for me 
to stay away, I would have gone, whether Bishop So and 
So had gone or not. _ But if, on the other hand, I had 
thought it would please God better for me to stay away, 
I would have stayed away, even though every bishop 
and every minister in Chicago had gone. 

Each one of us must decide these questions for our- 
selves. No one of us can be a conscience for someone 
else. But they are not at all difficult to decide if we 
decide them on this Bible basis of doing the things that 
would please our Father, and leaving undone the things 
that would not please Him. 

Take, for example, the theatre. Does it please God 
for a child of His to attend the theatre. Now, there are 
certain things that we all know about the theatre, or 
that we may easily learn if we do not already know 
them. We all know there is a great difference between 
the plays that are put on the stage. Some of them are 
of a high moral character and the natural tendency of 
them would be uplifting. Others are not morally so 
good, and others are as vile as the theatrical people 
dare make them. ‘Then we know, too, that there is a 
great difference between actors and actors, and between 
actresses and actresses. We know that some actors and 
actresses try to maintain a high moral standard, and 
that other actors and actresses are among the most cor- 
rupt members of modern society. We know that some 
actresses go on the stage with lofty moral ideals, and 
that other actresses have no moral ideals at all. ‘ Well, 
then,” someone may say, “the way to decide it is this: 
go to those plays, and only to those plays, where the 


WHO CAN PRAY 113 


play itself is of a high, elevating moral character, and 
where all the actors and actresses are men and women 
who are trying to maintain high moral ideals.” 

Well, if you decided it in that way, you would not 
go to very many plays. But the question is not quite 
so simple as that. The theatre is an institution, and we 
must judge it as an institution, judge it as it really exists 
today. It is possible to imagine a stage of the purest 
and loftiest character, and to imagine plays that would 
be among the most elevating of all the influences in 
society; but the question is not of the stage, and the 
plays, as we can imagine them, but of the stage as it 
actually exists today. 

Now, there are certain things that all of us who have 
studied the problem at all thoroughly, know about the 
stage as it exists today. We know that the influence 
of the stage upon the men and women who perform 
upon it is of a most demoralizing character. We know 
that many a woman has gone on the stage with a de- 
termination to maintain the highest moral ideals, and 
that they have all found out, after they have been on 
the stage a while, that they must do one of two things 
—they must either lower their flag, or else quit the 
stage. Some have quit the stage. Others have lowered 
their flag. 

Clement Scott, who was the leading dca critic 
of his day in England, and whose whole life was given 
to dramatic criticism, said some years ago in a leading 
London paper, over his own name, that it was prac- 
tically impossible for any woman to remain on the stage 
and retain her womanly modesty. This statement of 
his naturally aroused great excitement among theatrical 
people, and great indignation, and by threats of one 


114 WHO CAN PRAY 


kind and another they compelled Clement Scott to say 
that he was sorry that he made the statement, but they 
could never make him say that it was not true. 

When Mr. Alexander and I were holding meetings in 
London, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who stood at the top 
of the dramatic profession of that day, and who was 
afterwards knighted by the king because of his promi- 
nence and rare gifts, came down to see me at my lodg- 
ings, with one of the leading newspaper men of Lon- | 
don, to convince me that I was wrong in my attitude 
toward the stage. We had a long conversation. I in- 
vited Mr. Alexander in to listen to the conversation 
and he took part in it. In that conversation both Mr. 
Alexander and myself put some very direct questions to 
Beerbohm Tree, and he answered them frankly; and 
the admissions that he made (not, of course, regarding 
any obliquity in his own moral conduct, but regarding 
what was necessary to be done in the conduct of the 
stage), made me think worse of the theatre than J ever 
had before. 

When I was holding meetings in the big armory in 
Cleveland, Ohio, a theatrical manager called upon me 
at the hotel where I was stopping, and he said, “I de- 
mand the right to defend the stage from your plat- 
form.” I) said, ““ Why???) Hevsaid, “ Because you are 
doing a great profession a great wrong. I was in 
Philadelphia when you held your meetings there, and 
we theatrical managers got together while you were 
there, and we agreed together that your meetings cost 
the theatres of Philadelphia fifty thousand dollars.” I 
replied, “That is one of the best things I have ever 
heard about our meetings in Philadelphia. Now,” I 
said, “what do you want to say?” He said, “I want 


WHO CAN PRAY 115 


to defend the stage.” “ Well,” I said, “the Paris Figaro 
has said that it is wrong to judge actresses by the same 
moral canons that we judge other women; for what 
would be wrong in other women would be right in ac- 
tresses, for it is a part of their art.” ‘ Well,” he said, 
“that is just what I believe.” “ Well,’ I said, “that is 
worse than anything I have ever said about the theatre.” 

While I was in that same city of Cleveland, one of 
the most highly respected actors was performing with 
his troupe in the city at that time. It was a famous 
troupe, known on both sides of the water, and of high 
repute. One of the leading ladies in the troupe came 
under the influence of our meetings, and in conversation 
with my private secretary, another woman, told her 
what was practically required of any woman who hoped 
to become a star. And, when it was reported to me, I 
could not help but feel that I would rather see a daugh- 
ter of my own in her coffin than to see her on the stage. 
Is God pleased when a child of His patronizes an insti- 
tution like that, which has such an influence upon the 
women who perform on the stage? 

I knew a young lady who graduated from one of 
the best schools in her city. One of her most intimate 
friends in the class went on the stage soon after her 
graduation. This young lady’s parents went abroad, 
and leit her, with the other children, in Brooklyn, with 
an aunt. Her young friend, the actress, soon became 
engaged to a young man belonging to one of the better 
families in New York, and an invitation to the marriage 
came to this young lady whose parents were abroad. 
She took the invitation to her aunt and asked her about 
going. Her aunt said, in surprise, “ Why, you don’t 
intend to go to that wedding, do you? Is not your 


116 WHO CAN PRAY 


friend an actress?” “Yes.” “ Will there not be the- 
atrical people at the wedding? You certainly would not 
go to a wedding where there were theatrical people 
present.” And yet this aunt herself attended the thea- 
tre. I could not see the consistency of the matter. 

I repeat, knowing the stage as I do know it, not only 
as I have read about it in books, but from contact with 
a good many theatrical people and having had a good 
many conversations with theatrical people, I would 
rather see my daughter in her coffin than see her on the 
stage. Now, I believe in doing unto others as you 
would have them do unto you, and how could I patron- 
ize an institution that I would rather see my own daugh- 
ter in her coffin than belonging to that institution? 

When Mr. Alexander and I were holding meetings 
in London, and I had said some pretty plain things 
about the stage in our meetings in the Royal Albert 
Hall, I received a letter from a man who was manag- 
ing at that time more than thirty theatres in London. 
He wrote me saying, “I am the manager of more than 
thirty theatres in London at the present time, but I want 
to write you that every word you have said about the 
stage is true. I wish I were not in the business, but I 
am. Nevertheless, what you say is true.” A number of 
people quite prominently connected with the stage gave 
up that work during our meetings in London. 

How about the dance? Ought a Christian to dance? 
The answer to that question is found in the other ques- 
tion, Will it please God? Is God better pleased when 
a child of His dances, or when His child refuses to 
dance? Now, there are certain things that we all know 
about the dance. First of all, we know that a familiarity 
of contact is permitted between the sexes in the modern 


WHO CAN PRAY 117 


dance that is nowhere else permitted in decent society. 
How is it any better in the dance than it is elsewhere? 
When I was in Balarat, Australia, I said some pretty 
plain things about the dance, which led to a good many 
of the dancers giving up the dance, and to the break- 
ing up of a prominent dancing club in the city. Some 
months afterward I was crossing over from Tasmania 
to Australia, and a fellow passenger on the boat was a 
lawyer from Balarat. This lawyer came to me and said, 
mextesyounot Dr Torrey 27 Yes. Wellol domot 
think you were fair to the dancers of Balarat.” “ What 
did I say that was not true?” He replied, “I simply 
think you were not fair.” “ Yes, but will you state one 
single thing that was not true?” He said, “I simply 
think you were not fair.” “ Now, see here,” I said, “do 
VOUmdanGercwW say eS). ATG VOU aeiatrieds manny, 
Mes saa voes yours wite: dance 27 oieapy ess aa Viel, 
tell me, if you should see your wife in the same atti- 
tude toward some other man than yourself, at any other 
place than the ballroom, that she takes in the ballroom, 
what would you do?” He replied, “There would be 
trouble.” I said, ‘ Will you please tell me how it is 
any better in the ballroom, to the strains of seductive 
music, than anywhere else? Now, tell me another 
thing. Do you not know that in every class of society, 
even the most select, there are some men who are moral 
lepers?” He replied, “Of course we all know, Dr. 
Torrey, that in every class of society there are men who 
are corrupt.” “And your wife dances with those 
men?” “Well,” he said, “she does not know their 
character.” “ You are willing,” I said, “that your wife 
should be in the embrace of some other man who is a 
moral leper, simply because she does not know his char- 


118 WHO CAN PRAY 


acter?’”’ He made no reply. What reply could be 
made? 

Now, I do not believe for one single moment that 
every woman who dances has evil thoughts. I think 
that some of the girls who dance are sweet, innocent, 
pure-minded girls; but, if they knew the thoughts that 
were in the minds of the men with whom they dance, 
they would never go on the floor again. Three young 
men came to me in an eastern college town and said 
to me, “Dr. Torrey, what have you got against the 
dance? 7. Tsrephed) = Dovyouldance raya Y es ia ae 
you Christians?” “Yes.” “ Will you please tell me 
what your thoughts are when you dance?” ‘They said, 
“Our thoughts are all right if we dance with a pure 
girl.” I said, “Do you dance with any other kind?” 
“Well,” they said, “ you know, Dr. Torrey, that there 
are some girls that are not what they ought to be.” 
* And,” 22 ‘said; \“ you odance*swith) them ¢72) S0yieems 
“Well, you have answered your own question.” 

It is a well-known fact, proven by many a test, that 
the select dance is the greatest feeder of, and auxiliary 
to, the most awful institution that exists in civilized 
society today. Oh! if pure women could only know 
where many of the young men who dance with them go 
immediately after the dance is over, if I could only tell 
you things that I know personally, not that I have read 
in books but that have come under my own personal 
observation, regarding the effect of the select dance, 
among what are called the better classes of society, 
there is not a self-respecting woman in this audience, 
to say nothing of a Christian woman, that would go on 
the floor again. 

There is certainly no dance that is considered more 


WHO CAN PRAY 119 


select than a dance at some college function. A young 
man whom I know very well attended one of our lead- 
ing eastern Presbyterian colleges. He did not dance, he 
had been brought up by parents who did not believe 
in the dance. But his most intimate friend did dance. 
This friend was a Christian, and president of the Y. M. 
C. A. To one of the college functions he invited a 
young lady in whom he was interested. The other 
young man who did not dance asked his friend who 
had invited the young lady to the dance, to let him see 
the dancing card that he had filled out for her. When 
he looked it over he saw that his friend had given a 
dance with this young lady in whom he was interested, 
to a man whose immorality was notorious in the col- 
lege, and who was in a very disgusting physical con- 
dition at the time, as the direct outcome of his sin. He 
turned to his friend and said, “ What! do you not know 
the condition in which is in at the present time? 
Does not everybody in college know?” “ Yes, I know.” 
“And you have given a dance with this young lady 
whom you are interested in, to that young man?” The 
young man replied, “Well, you know R , you 
cannot make those distinctions in college.” No, you 
cannot, nor can you elsewhere, if you dance. Any 
woman that dances is bound, sooner or later, to get into 
the arms of a moral leper. And is God pleased? 

But what about the cards? Ought a Christian to play 
cards? Now, I frankly admit that I do not think the 
case against the cards is as clear as is the case against 
the theatre or the dance; but it is clear enough. Every- 
one who has studied the matter knows that cards are 
the gambler’s darling weapon. We know, also, that 
pretty much every gambler took the first lessons that 








120 WHO CAN PRAY 


led him to the gaming table, at the quiet family card- 
table. I have never known a single reformed gambler 
in my life (and I have known many of them) who did 
not hate the cards as he hated poison. Why? Because 
he knew that the cards were the secret of his own 
downfall. 

When we were holding meetings in Nashville, Ten- 
nessee, my wife went out to one of the penal institu- 
tions near Nashville, and there she learned of a man 
who was serving a life sentence for murder, because he 
had shot a man at the gaming table, and he said that 
he took his first step in that direction by tallying for 
his mother as she played cards with her friends. 

Some years ago a Y. M. C. A. secretary in Ohio was 
going to the State penitentiary to make a visit upon some 
of the prisoners. Before he left, a lady came to him 
and said, “ Are you going to visit the prisoners?” He 
said, “ Yes.” She said, “I have a son in that prison. 
Will you take him this Bible for me, and say that his 
mother sent it'to hime”) The WY ..M?'C. Av secretamy 
consented. When he reached the prison he asked for 
this young man. The young man was brought in. He 
started to hand him the Bible, saying, “ Your mother 
sent you this Bible.” The prisoner looked at him and 
said, “ Did my mother send me that Bible?” “ Yes.” 
“Well,” he said, “ you can take it right back to my 
mother. I do not want my mother’s Bible. If my 
mother had not taught me to play cards, I would not 
be here today. I do not want my mother’s Bible. Take 
it back to her.” 

I knew of a family where the father and mother tried 
to make home so pleasant for their three sons that they 
would not wish to go anywhere else of a night; and 


WHO CAN PRAY 121 


they did make their home pleasant—the pleasantest 
place in the whole community, and the sons were per- 
fectly contented to spend their nights at home. Among 
other things, to amuse their children, this father and 
mother played cards with them. Of the three sons, one 
did not have a taste for the cards. He was not better 
than the other two. His tastes simply ran in another 
direction. The other two played cards at home. Now 
this theory of making home so pleasant would have 
been all right, if young men were always to stay at home, 
but the time comes for young men to leave home. 
These three young men left home, and the two that 
had learned to play cards at home, with their Christian 
father and mother, both became gamblers. 

Major Cole, the evangelist, was once holding meet- 
ings in an Arkansas city. At one of the meetings, in 
the Presbyterian church, a very disreputable looking 
man came in and took a seat over on the right-hand 
side of the church. When the meeting was opened for 
testimonies, this moral derelict arose in his place, looked 
around the church, and said, “All this looks very 
familiar to me. When I was a boy I attended this 
church. My father was an elder in this church, This 
is our old pew, where I am standing. There were seven 
of us boys who were in a Sunday school class. Our 
teacher was a very kind lady. She not only taught us 
the Bible on Sundays, but had us at her house on Satur- 
day afternoons to teach us the Bible, and to play games 
with us. One day after we had been going there a 
while, she brought out a pack of cards and showed us 
tricks with the cards. Later we played games with the 
cards. We soon wanted more cards, and asked the 
teacher if she would not give us less Bible and more 


122 WHO CAN PRAY 


cards. But we did not get enough cards there, so we 
left Sunday school and spent our Sunday afternoons in 
a cotton press, playing cards. 

“There were seven members in the class. Two of 
those members have already been hanged; two are in 
state prisons at the present time; I have lost track of 
one; the sixth member of the class is at present a fugi- 
tive from justice, and if the authorities knew where he 
was he would be under arrest; and I am the seventh 
member of that class, and if the authorities knew where 
I was I would be under arrest.” Just then a lady dressed 
in black, in the back of the church, sprang to her feet, 
came running down the aisle with her hands flung in 
the air, and crying, “Oh, my God, and I am that teacher,” 
she fell at his feet as though she were dead. They 
thought for a while that she was dead. I would not 
like to have been that teacher. Oh! fathers and mothers, 
happy is the young man or young woman who goes 
out into the world not knowing one card from another, 
and fully instructed in the peril there is in the cards. 
And if any of you parents have a pack of cards in your 
home, I advise you to burn it up as soon as you get 
home. 

Well, how about the movies? I do not need to dwell 
upon that. The movies are worse than the theatre ever 
dreamed of being, immeasurably worse. The stage, at 
its very worst, was never so occupied with the most 
open depiction of degrading sin as are the movies today, 
and the character of movie actors and actresses is notori- 
ous. I do not mean to say for one single moment that 
every movie actress is immoral. I know better. One 
of the most modest, and sweetest Christian young 
women I ever knew, who is now a minister’s wife, and 


WHO CAN PRAY 123 


a beautiful Christian mother, was, when I first got ac- 
quainted with her, a movie actress. And I do not ques- 


tion that there are others like her. But the lives of . 


movie actors and actresses, taken as a whole, are full 
of the most terrible temptations, and many, very many 
have yielded to those temptations. Movie plays as they 
exist today (I am not talking about educational movies, 
although some that are paraded as educational are 
among the vilest plays there are) are, for the most part, 
one of the greatest menaces that exist to the young life 
of our country, and also to pure family life. Is God 
pleased when a child of His patronizes a movie play, 
when it is what we all know it is today? 

There are many other things of which I might speak, 
but this is enough to illustrate the principle. But some 
one will ask, “Dr. Torrey, do you mean to say that 
dancing, theatre-going, card-playing, and going to the 
movies, is a sin, in the sense that stealing is a sin, and 
adultery is a sin, and murder is a sin, and gossipping 
is a sin, and slandering your neighbours is a sin?” No, 
I do not say that. “Then,” you ask, “ Wherein is the 
harm in it?” Right here: our indulging in these things 
does not please God, and therefore they rob prayer of 
power; and I want every ounce of power in prayer that 
I can have, and if there is anything, no matter how 
innocent it may be in itself, or however much can be 


said in defense of it, that robs prayer of power, I am — 


going to give it up. 

Remember, in all that I am saying I am not legislat- 
ing for the world. If it were in my power to pass a 
law that there should be no more dancing, no more 
card-playing, no more theatres, no more movies, I 
would not pass it. I would not believe in it. No, I 


124 WHO CAN PRAY 


am not legislating at all for the unsaved about these 
matters, or other matters. I am simply trying to tell 
men and women who profess to be Christians how to 
get the most out of your Christian life, and, in particular 
at this time, how to have power in prayer. And, beyond 
an honest question, these things rob prayer of power. 
The Christian who dances, or goes to the theatre, or 
plays cards, or attends the movies, or does many other 
things which are not pleasing to God, cannot be a man 
or woman of power in prayer. 

To sum up all we have said: the ones who can pray 
so that God will hear their prayers, and give them what- 
ever they ask, are those who study the Word of God 
every day of their lives to find out what the will of God 
is, and do it every time they find it, and who further 
than that, make it their study to get thoroughly ac- 
quainted with God, so that they know instinctively what 
will please God and what will displease God, and in 
every action of their lives seek to do the thing that 
pleases God, whether it pleases men or not, and not to 
do the thing that displeases God, no matter who else 
may do it. Oh! that we all might enter into the won- 
derful place of privilege described in our text: “ What- 
soever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his 
commandments, and do the things that are pleasing in 
his sight.” 


VI 
PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST 


“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I 
do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye 
shall ask anything in my name, that will I do.’—Joun 
14:13, 14. 


the same time most commonly misunderstood 
promises in the Bible regarding God’s willingness 
to answer prayer is found in John 14:13, 14: 

“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I 
do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye 
shall ask anything in my name, that will I do.” 

Here our Lord Jesus Christ Himself tells us that 
if a certain class of people pray in a certain way, 
He will give them the very thing that they ask. Listen 
to the promise again, “ Whatsoever ye shall ask in my 
name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified 
in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, that 
will I do.” These words are very plain, very simple, 
very positive and very precious and cheering. They 
tell us that there are certain people who can get from 
God anything that they ask for, if only they will ask 
for it in a certain way. 

There is a doctrine regarding prayer that is very com- 
mon in our day. It is this, “If we pray, our praying will 
do much good in many ways. We may not get the very 


thing that we ask, but we will get something, something 
125 


O NE of the most familiar, most wonderful, and at 


126 PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS 


just as good as that which we ask, or perhaps something 
far better than what we ask.” I do not doubt that there 
is a certain measure of truth in that doctrine. It is a 
good thing sometimes that some of us do not get what 
we ask for; we are so-careless, and so thoughtless, and 
so hasty, and so little under the control of the Holy 
Spirit when we pray, that it is oftentimes a good thing 
for us, and a good thing for others oftentimes, that we 
do not get the very thing that we ask. It would be a great 
misfortune if some of us got some of the things that we 
ask of God. But while there is a certain measure of truth 
in that doctrine, it is not the doctrine of prayer taught in 
the Bible. The doctrine of prayer taught in the Bible 
is, that there are certain people who can pray in a cer- 
tain way and who will get not merely some good thing, 
or something just as good as what they ask, or some- 
thing even better than what they ask, but they will get 
the very thing that they ask. “Whatsoever ye shall 
ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be 
glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my 
name, that will I do.” There are two things to espe- 
cially notice about this promise: First, Who it is to 
whom the promise is made, who it is that can ask in 
the name of the Lord Jesus and get the very thing they 
ask; second, how these persons must pray in order to 
get what they ask. 


I. To WHomM THE PROMISE 1S MADE 


First of all, notice to whom this promise is made. 
One of the most common sources of misinterpretation 
of the Bible is the applying of promises that are made 
to a certain clearly defined class to people to whom the 
promises were never made. God does not promise to 


PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS) = 127 


answer the prayers of everybody; indeed, He tells us 
very plainly that there are people to whose prayers He 
will pay no attention whatever. In the case of the 
present promise we are told very definitely in the con- 
text, in what goes before and what comes after the 
promise, just who it is whose prayers God will answer, 
if they are offered in a certain way. Who are the peo- 
ple to whom God says through His Son Jesus Christ, 
‘“Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do’’? 
They are clearly described in verse twelve, the verse 
that immediately precedes, and verses fifteen and seven- 
teen, the verses that immediately follow the promise. 

1. First of all then, let us look at verse twelve, 
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on 
Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater 
works than these shall he do; because I go unto the 
Father.’ And then our Lord goes on to say, “ And 
whatsoever ye [that is, ye that believve on the Son, as 
just defined] shall ask in my name, that will Ido.” The 
promise then is made, first of all, to those who believe 
upon Jesus Christ. Notice very carefully that it is not 
made to those who believe about Jesus Christ, but those 
who believe on Jesus Christ. People are constantly 
confusing in their own minds two entirely different 
things, believing about Jesus Christ and believing on 
Jesus Christ. God does not promise to answer the pray- 
ers of those who merely believe about Jesus Christ even 
though their faith is perfectly and rigidly orthodox, 
He does promise to answer the prayers of those who 
believe on Jesus Christ. A person may believe perfectly 
correctly about Jesus Christ, and yet not believe on 
Him at all. The Devil himself believes about Jesus 
Christ, and is doubtless perfectly orthodox; he knows 


128 PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS 


more about Jesus Christ as He really is than we do, but 
the Devil certainly does not believe on Jesus Christ. 
There are many people today who, because their view 
of Jesus Christ is perfectly orthodox, imagine that they 
believe on Jesus Christ. But that does not follow at all. 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BELIEVE ON JESUS CHRIST? 
To believe on Jesus Christ means to put our personal con- 
fidence in Jesus Christ as what He claims to be, and to 
accept Him to be to ourselves what He offers Himself 
to: be to: us.) lt) méans (torus stomaccept: Him aexous 
Saviour, as the one who bore our sins in His own body 
upon the cross, and to trust God to forgive us because 
Jesus Christ died in our place, and also to accept Him 
as our Lord and Master to whom we surrender the ab- 
solute control of our lives. This we are told in so many 
words in the first chapter of this same Book, in the 
twelfth verse: ‘“ But as many as received him, to them 
gave he the right to become children of God, even to them 
that believe on his name.” 

Nowhere in the whole Bible does God promise to 
hear the prayers of people who do not believe on Jesus 
Christ, i. e., the prayers of people who are not united 
to Jesus Christ by a living faith in Himself as their 
Saviour, and as their Lord. I do not say that God 
never does answer the prayers of those who are not 
believers on Jesus Christ. I believe that He sometimes 
does. He answered some of my prayers before I was 
in the Bible sense a believer on Him, but He does not 
promise to do it. His doing it belongs to what the old 
theologians used to call so aptly, “the uncovenanted 
mercies of God.” He promises most plainly and most 
positively to answer the prayers of those who believe on 
Jesus Christ, but never does He promise to answer the 


PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS = 129 


prayers of those who do not believe on Jesus Christ. 
Anyone who does not believe on Jesus Christ has no 
right whatever to expect God to answer their prayers, 
and he has no cause whatever to complain that vi 
promises of God are not true because He does not dn- 
swer their prayers. There are many people who say 
they know that God does not answer prayer, because 
He has never answered their prayers, and they have 
tried it time and time again. But that is no proof what- 
ever that God does not answer prayer, for God has 
never promised to answer their prayers. 

That is one of the many good things about believing 
on Jesus Christ, it puts us on praying ground, it puts 
us in the place where we can go to God in every time 
of need and get from Him the very thing that we need 
and ask for. I would rather be on praying ground, 
rather be in such a relation to God that He can and 
will answer my prayers, than to have the combined 
wealth of a hundred Rockefellers. Times will come in 
the life of every one of us sooner or later when no 
earthly friend can help us, and no amount of wealth 
can help us; but the time will never come when God 
cannot help us and deliver us completely. This im- 
portant question, therefore, confronts every one of us 
this morning, “Do I believe on Jesus Christ?” Not 
do I believe about Him, but do I believe on Him. If 
you do not, there is but one wise thing to do. There 
is but one thing to do that has even the slightest sem- 
blance of intelligence; and that is, to believe on Jesus 
Christ right now. Put your confidence in Him as your 
Saviour right now, and look to God to forgive your sins 
right now because Jesus Christ died in your place, and 
also put your confidence in Him right now as your Lord 


180 PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS 


and Master to whom you surrender the entire control 
of your thoughts and your life and your conduct, right 
now. 

2. But this is not all of the description of those 
whose prayers God promises to answer. The rest of 
the description of this fortunate class we find in the 
fifteenth verse, the verse that follows the promise. “Jf 
ye love me ye will keep my commandments.” The 
promise then ts made to those who believe on Jesus 
Christ and who love Him with that genuine love that 
leads them to keep His commandments. Of course in 
order to keep His commandments we must know them, 
and in ordet to know them we must study His Word, 
in which He has revealed to us His will. So we see 
that THE PROMISE IS MADE TO THOSE WHO STUDY THE 
Worp oF GoD EACH DAY OF THEIR LIVES THAT THEY MAY 
KNOW WHAT GoD’s WILL IS REGARDING THEIR CONDUCT, 
AND WHO, WHEN THEY DISCOVER IT, DO IT EVERY TIME. 
This brings us to just where we were when we were 
studying I John 3:22: “ And whatsoever we ask we re- 
ceive of him, because we keep his commandments and 
do the things that are pleasing in his sight.” 

There is not a promise in the whole Book of God 
that God will hear and answer the prayers of a dis- 
obedient child. If we are to expect God to listen to us 
when we pray to Him, we must first of all listen to God 
when He speaks to us in His Word. We must obey 
God every time He commands and then (and only 
then) He will hear every time we pray. We must study 
His Word each day of our lives that we may find out 
what His will is, and when we find it do it every time. 
Then, and only then, are we on praying ground. 

To sum it all up, then, The promise of God to give to 


PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS _ 181 


a certain class of people whatever they ask in a certain 
way, is made to those who are united to Him by a living 
faith, and an obedient love, to them and to them alone. 
Someone may wish to ask, ‘“ Which is more important 
in the prayer life, that we have a living faith in Jesus 
Christ or an obedient love to Jesus Christ?” The an- 
swer is very simple. You cannot have one without the 
other. If you have a living faith in Jesus Christ, it will 
lead inevitably to an obedient love to Jesus Christ. 
Paul states this.very clearly in Galatians 5:6: “ For in 
Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor 
uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.” On 
the other hand, you will never love Jesus Christ until 
- you begin by believing in His love to you. We begin 
by believing in His love to us and end by loving Him. 
Or, as John puts it, in I John 4:19: “We love him, 
because he first loved us.’ There are many people who 
are trying to love God as a matter of duty, but no one 
ever succeeds in that: attempt. Of course, we ought to 
love God, for He is infinitely worthy of our love. We 
ought to love Him because of His moral perfection, and 
because He is the infinite One and our creator; but no 
one ever did love Him for that reason nor ever will or 
ever can. Here is where the Unitarians, under the lead- 
ership of Channing and other great intellectual leaders 
of his day, made their mistake. They tried to love God 
as a matter of duty. We never can and never will. 
But if we will first of all just put our trust in His won- 
derful love to us, vile and worthless sinners, we will 
soon find ourselves loving Him without an effort. Love 
to God is the inevitable outcome of our believing in His 
love to us. 

A little girl in London came one day to Mark Guy 


132 PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS 


Pearse, the great English preacher, and looked up wist- 
fully into his face and said, “ Mr. Pearse, I don’t love 
Jesus. I wish I did love Jesus, but I don’t love Jesus. 
Won’t you please tell me how to love Jesus?” And 
the great preacher looked down into those eager eyes 
and said to her, “ Little girl, as you go home today keep 
saying to yourself, ‘Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. 
Jesus loves me.’ And when you come back next Sun- 
day I think you will be able to say, ‘I love Jesus.’ ” 
The following Sunday the little girl came up to him 
again with happy eyes and radiant face and exclaimed, 
“Oh, Mr. Pearse, I do love Jesus, I do love Jesus. 
Last Sunday as I went home | kept saying to myself, 
‘Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me.’ 
And I began to think about His love and I began to 
think how He died upon the cross in my place, and I 
found my cold heart growing warm, and the first I knew 
it was full of love to Jesus.” That is the only way any- 
one will ever learn to love the Lord Jesus—by first of 
all believing what the Bible tells us about His love for 
us even when we are the vilest of sinners, and how He 
died in our place; and how “ He was wounded for our 
transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities,’ and 
how “the chastisement of our peace was upon Him;” 
and how “by his stripes we are healed.” We begin by 
believing on Him, we begin by believing in His great 
love to us, and we wind up by loving Him and showing 
our love to Him by daily studying His Word to find 
out His will, and doing it every time we find it. And 
then we are on praying ground. 

Some years ago a great Scotch teacher delivered an 
address at Northfield on the subject of whether it was 
better to have faith in Jesus Christ without love, or to 


PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS = 133 


have love for Jesus Christ without faith, and he came 
to the conclusion that it was better to have love with- 
out faith, than it was to have faith without love. But 
the whole address, though a great address in many ways, 
was built upon a misapprehension and a false assump- 
tion. He had assumed that we could have love with- 
out faith, but we cannot. Love to Christ is the outcome 
of faith in Christ, and faith in Christ is the root out of 
which love to Christ grows. To discuss whether it is 
better to have faith without love, or love without faith 
is like discussing whether it would be better to have an 
apple orchard whose trees had good roots but bore no 
apples; or to have an orchard whose trees had no roots 
but bore good apples. Of course an orchard where the 
trees had no roots would bear no apples at all. Anda 
life that is not rooted in faith in the love of Jesus Christ 
to us has no roots and cannot bear the fruit of love, and 
the obedience which comes out of love. So, then, this 
promise that we are considering 1s made to those who 
have a living faith in Jesus Christ that manifests itself 
in an obedient love. 


II. PrAyING IN THE NAME oF JESUS 


But how must those who are united to Jesus Christ 
by a living faith that reveals itself in an obedient love 
pray if they are to get the very thing that they ask? 
Let us read the verse again: “‘ And whatsoever ye shall 
ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may 
be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything im 
my name, that will I do.” If we are to get from God 
what we ask, we must ask it IN THE NAME OF THE Lorp 
Jesus. Prayer in the name of Jesus Christ prevails 
with God. No other prayer does. There is no other 


134 PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS 


approach to God for any man or woman except through 
Jesus Christ, as the Lord Himself tells us in the sixth 
verse of this same chapter: “I am the way, the truth, 
and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” 

But just what does it mean to pray in the name of 
Jesus? I have heard many explanations of this. Some 
of them were so profound or mystical, or so mixed, or 
so obscure, or so something or other, that when I got 
through reading them or listening to them I knew less 
about it than when I started. I have heard two great 
Bible teachers, two of the most renowned Bible teachers 
in the world, say that to “ Pray in the name of Jesus 
means to pray in the person of Jesus.” Now I do not 
question that these two great Bible teachers had some 
definite thought in their own minds, but it certainly con- 
veyed no clear and definite thought to my mind. The 
truth is, there is nothing mysterious about it. It is as 
simple as anything possibly can be, so simple that any 
intelligent child can understand it. I am always sus- 
picious of profound explanations of the Scriptures, ex- 
planations that require a scholar or philosopher to under- 
stand them. The Bible is the plain man’s book. The Lord 
Jesus Himself said in Matthew 11:25, “I thank thee, O 
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide 
these things from the wise and understanding, and didst 
reveal them unto babes.” In at least ninety-nine cases 
in a hundred the meaning of Scripture that lies on the 
surface, the meaning that any simple-minded man, 
woman, or child who really wants to know the truth 
and to obey it would see in it, is what it really means, 
I have great sympathy with the little child who, when 
she once heard a learned attempt to explain away the 
plain meaning of Scripture, exclaimed, “ If God did not 


PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS = 135 


mean what He said, why didn’t He say what He 
meant?” Well, God always does say just what He 
means, just what you and IJ would understand by it if 
our wills were really surrendered to God and we really 
desired to know exactly what God wished to tell us, 
and not to read our own opinions into the Bible. And 
He means by this expression, “In my name,” just ex- 
actly what the words would indicate to any earnest and 
intelligent seeker after the truth who was willing to 
take God’s words at their exact face value. 

When you come across a word or a phrase in the 
Bible and do not know what it means, the thing to do 
is not to run off to a dictionary, nor a commentary, nor 
to some book of theology, but to take your concord- 
ance and go through the Bible and look up every place 
where that word or phrase, or synonymous words or 
phrases, are used. Then you will know just what the 
word or phrase means. The meaning of words and 
phrases in the Bible is to be determined just as it 1s in 
all other books, by usage. Now I have done this with 
this phrase, “In my name” and with synonymous 
phrases, “In his name;’ or “In the name of Jesus 
Christ.” I have looked up every passage in the Bible 
where they are found, and I have discovered, what I 
suspected at the outset, that these phrases mean exactly 
the same in the Bible that they do in ordinary every- 
day speech. What does it mean in ordinary every-day 
speech to ask something in some other person’s name? 
It means simply this, that you ask the thing that you 
ask from the person of whom you ask it, on the ground 
of some claim that the person in whose name you ask 
it has upon the one from whom you ask it. 

Let me illustrate. Suppose I should go down to the 


1386 PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS 


First National Bank of this city and should write out 
a check “ Pay to the order of R. A. Torrey the sum of 
five dollars,’ and then should sign my own name at 
the bottom of the check and then go to the paying 
teller’s window and put that check in. What would I 
be doing? I would be praying that bank to give me 
five doilars. And in whose name would I be asking 
it? In my own name. And what would happen? The 
paying teller would take the check and look at it, and 
then look at me, and then he would say, “ Dr. Torrey, 
have you any money in this bank?” “No.” Then 
what would he say? Something like this. “ We would 
like to accommodate you, but that is not business. You 
have no claim whatever upon this bank and we cannot 
honour your check even though it is for only five dol- 
lars.” But suppose, instead of that, some man here in 
the city who had a hundred thousand dollars in that 
bank should call me in and say, “Dr. Torrey, I am 
greatly interested in the work of the Bible Institute, and 
I have wanted to give some money to it and I am going 
to hand it to you.” And then he draws a check “ pay 
to the order of R. A. Torrey the sum of five thousand 
dollars,’ and then he signs his name at the bottom 
of the check. I go to the bank again, and in presenting 
that check what would I be doing? I would be ask- 
ing that bank to give me five thousand dollars. And 
in whose name would I be asking it? Not in my own 
name, but in the name of the man whose name is signed 
to the bottom of the check, and who has claims of a 
hundred thousand dollars on that bank. 

And what would happen? The teller would look at 
the check, and then he would not ask me whether I 
had any money in that bank, and he would not care 


PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS = 187 


whether I had a penny in that bank or in any bank. 
If the check were properly drawn, and properly en- 
dorsed, he would count me out five thousand dollars; 
for I would be asking it in the other man’s name, ask- 
ing it.on the ground of his claims on that bank. Now 
that is exactiy what praying in the name of Jesus Christ 
means. It means that we go to the bank of Heaven, 
on which neither you nor J nor any other man on earth 
has any claim of his own, but upon which Jesus Christ 
has infinite claims, and in Jesus’ name, which He has 
given us a right to put on our checks, if we are united 
to Him by a living faith that reveals itself in an obedi- 
ent love, and ask whatever we need in His name. Or, 
to put it another way, to pray in the name of Jesus 
Christ is to recognize that we have no claims on God 
whatever, that God owes us nothing whatever, that we 
deserve nothing of God; but, believing what God Him- 
self tells us about Jesus Christ’s claims upon Him, we 
ask God for things on the ground of Jesus Christ’s 
claims upon God. And when we draw near to God in 
that way we can get “whatsoever we ask,” no matter 
how great it may be. 

Praying in the name of Christ means more than 
merely attaching that phrase, “In Jesus’ name,” or 
“For Jesus’ sake”? to your prayers. Many a man asks 
for things and puts that phrase, “In Jesus’ name,” or 
“For Jesus’ sake” in his prayer, while all the time he 
is really approaching God on the ground of some claim 
that he fancies that he has on God. And in reality, 
though he uses the phrase, he is not praying in the name 
of Jesus Christ but praying in his own name. Anda 
man might not put that phrase in his prayer at all, and 
yet all the time draw near to God realizing that he has 


138 PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS 


no claims on God, but believing that Jesus Christ has 
claims on God and be approaching God on the ground 
of Jesus Christ’s claims. Here is where many a person 
fails of getting an answer to prayer. They ask things 
of God on the ground of some claim they fancy they 
themselves have on God. They fancy because they are 
such good Christians, so consistent in their lives, and 
so active in their service, that God is under obligation 
to grant their prayers. 

When I was in Melbourne, Australia, as I went on 
the platform one day at the business men’s meeting, at 
the noon hour in the Town Hall, a note was put in my 
hands. This note read: 


“ DEAR Dr. TORREY: 

“T am in great perplexity. I have been praying for a long 
time for something that I am confident is according to God’s 
will, but I do not get it. I have been a member of the Pres- 
byterian Church for thirty years, and have tried to be a 
consistent one all the time. I have been Superintendent in 
the Sunday School for twenty-five years, and an elder in 
the church for twenty years; and yet God does not answer 
my prayer and I cannot understand it. Can you explain it 
to me?” 


I took the note with me on to the platform and read 
it and said, “It is perfectly easy to explain it. This man 
thinks that because he has been a consistent Church mem- 
ber for thirty years, a faithful Sunday School Superin- 
tendent for twenty-five years, and an elder in the church 
for twenty years, that God is under obligation to answer 
his prayer. He is really praying in his own name, and 
God will not hear our prayers when we approach Him 
in that way. We must, if we would have God answer 
our prayers, give up any thought that we have any claims 


PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS = 1389 


upon God. There is not one of us who deserves anything 
from God. If we got what we deserved, every last one. 
of us would spend eternity in hell. But Jesus Christ has 
great claims on God, and we should go to God in our 
prayers not on the ground of any goodness in ourselves, 
but on the ground of Jesus Christ’s claims. And this man 
is going on the ground of the claims that he supposes that 
he has, because he has been a faithful church member for 
thirty years, a Sunday School Superintendent for twenty- 
five years, and an elder in the church twenty years. He is 
praying in his own name. At the close of the meeting 
a gentleman stepped up to me and said, “I wrote that 
note. You have hit the nail square on the head. I did 
think that because I had been a consistent church mem- 
ber for thirty years, a Sunday School Superintendent for 
twenty-five years, and an elder in the church for twenty 
years, that God was under obligation to answer my pray- 
ers. I see my mistake.” 

Multitudes are making the same mistake. They fancy 
that because they are faithful church members, and ac- 
tive in Christian service, that God is under obligation to 
answer their prayers, that they have some claim on God. 
Not one of us has any claim on God; the best of us here 
if we got what we deserved would spend eternity in hell. 
We are miserable sinners. But Jesus Christ has claims 
on God and He has given us the right to draw near to 
God in His name, that is, on the ground of His claims 
on God. 

To pray, then, in the name of Jesus Christ, means 
simply this. That we recognize that we have no claims 
whatever on God. That we have no merit whatsoever in 
His sight, and to recognize, furthermore, that Jesus 
Christ has immeasurable claims on God, and has given 


140 PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS 


us the right to draw near to God not on the ground of 
our claims, but on the ground of His claims. And when 
we thus draw near to God in prayer, God will give us 
what we ask. 

Oh, what a precious -privilege it is to pray in the name 
of Jesus Christ. How rich we are if we only realize that 
Jesus Christ has given us the privilege of drawing near 
to the Heavenly Father in His name, on the ground of 
His claims on God. When I was a boy my father had 
put the conduct of much of the expenditures of the home 
and other things in the hands of my brother next older 
than myself, my oldest brother being away from home, 
and the bank account was in the name of this brother 
next older than myself. But he, too, was called away 
from home, and he turned over the matter of paying bills 
and the conduct of the business to me. He gave me a 
check book full of checks made out in blank with his name 
signed to them and said, “ Whenever you want any 
money just fill out this check for the amount that you 
want, and go and present it at the bank.” How rich I 
felt with that bank book full of checks made out in blank, 
and that I could fill out at any time and go to the bank 
and get what I asked. But what is that to what the Lord 
Jesus Christ has done for us? He has put all His bank 
account at our disposal. He has given us the right to 
draw near to the Father in His name, and ask anything 
of God on the ground not of our claims upon God, but 
on the ground of His claims upon God. 

Even before Mr. Moody gave up business he was very 
active in Christian work, and often went out from Chi- 
cago to some of the country towns round about and held 
short series of meetings. At one time he was holding a 
series of meetings in a town in Illinois some distance from 


PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS 141 


Chicago. The wife of the judge of that district came 
to him and said, “ Mr. Moody, won’t you go and talk to 
my husband?”’ Mr. Moody replied, “ I cannot talk to your 
husband. Your husband is an educated man; he is a 
book infidel and I am nothing but an ignorant shoe clerk 
from Chicago.” But the judge’s wife was very insistent 
that he should go and talk with him, and finally Mr. 
Moody consented to go—and went. When he entered 
the outer office of the judge the law clerks tittered 
audibly as they thought of how quickly the clever judge 
would dispose of this ignorant young worker from Chi- 
cago. Mr. Moody went into the judge’s inner office and 
said to him, “Judge, I cannot talk with you. You are 
an educated man, you are a book infidel, and I am noth- 
ing but an uneducated boot clerk from Chicago. But I 
want to ask you one thing. When you are converted 
will you let me know?” The judge answered with a con- 
temptuous laugh, “ Yes, young man, when I am converted 
I will let you know. Yes, when [I am converted I will let 
you know. Good morning.” As Mr. Moody passed out 
of the inner office to the outer office, the judge raised 
his voice higher so that the clerks in the outer office might 
hear, “ Yes, young man, when I am converted I will let 
you know,” and the law clerks tittered louder than before. 

But the judge was converted within a year. Mr. 
Moody went back to the town and called on the judge. 
He said, “ Judge, do you mind telling me how you were 
converted?” ‘“ No, Mr. Moody,” he replied, “I will be 
very glad to tell you. Sometime after you were here, one 
prayer-meeting night my wife went to prayer-meeting as 
she always did, and I stayed at home as I always did and 
read the evening paper. After a while as I sat there 
reading I began to feel very miserable, began to feel that 


142 PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS 


I was a great sinner. Before my wife got home I was 
so miserable that I did not dare face my wife and retired 
before she reached the house. She came up to my room 
and said, ‘Are you ill?’ I replied, “No, I wasn’t feel- 
ing real well and thought I would go to bed. Good night.’ 
I was miserable all night, and when morning came I felt 
so bad that I did not dare face my wife at the breakfast 
table, and I simply looked into the breakfast room and 
said, “ Wife, I am not feeling real well. Ill not eat any 
breakfast this morning. Good-bye, I am going down to 
the office.” When I got to the office I felt so miserable 
that I told my clerks that they could take a holiday, and 
when they had left I locked the outer door and then I 
went into my inner office and locked that door, and sat 
down. I got to feeling more and more miserable as I 
thought of my sins, until at last I knelt down and said, 
‘Oh, God, forgive my sins.’ There was no answer. And 
I cried more earnestly, ‘Oh, God, forgive my sins.’ 
There was no answer. I would not say, “Oh, God, for 
Jesus Christ’s sake forgive my sins,’ for I was a Uni- 
tarian and did not believe in the atonement. Again I 
cried, “Oh, God, forgive my sins.’ But there was no 
answer. At last I was so perfectly miserable at the 
thought of my sins that I cried, ‘Oh, God, for Jesus 
Christ’s sake forgive my sins.’ And I found instant 
peace.” 

Oh, men and women, there is no use in our trying to 
approach God in any other way than in the name of Jesus 
Christ, and on the ground of His claims upon God, and 
on the ground of His atoning death whereby He took 
our sins upon Himself and made it possible for us to 
approach God on the ground of His claims upon God. 

While we have no claims upon God because of any 


PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS 148 


goodness or service of our own, Jesus Christ, as we have 
said, has infinite claims upon God and has given us the 
right to approach God in His name, and we ought to go 
very boldly to God and ask great things of God. Often- 
times when we pray and ask something that seems to be 
pretty big, the Devil will come and say to us, “ You ought 
not to pray for anything so great as that, you are such 
a poor Christian that is more than you deserve.” Yes, 
it is more than we deserve, but it is not as much as Jesus 
Christ deserves. Time and time again Satan has said to 
me when I have dared to ask something of God that 
seemed very large, “Oh, don’t dare to ask so great a 
thing as that. You are not worthy of anything so great 
as that,’ and I have replied, “I know that I am not 
worthy of anything so great as that. I am not worthy 
of anything at all, but Jesus Christ is worthy of that and 
I am asking not on the ground of my claims upon God, 
but on the ground of His. And sometimes as I think 
of how precious the name of Jesus Christ is to God, how 
He delights to honour the name of His Son, I grow very 
bold and ask God for great things. Once when I was 
kneeling in prayer, as I was thinking of how infinite was 
the worth of Jesus Christ, how infinite were His claims 
upon God, and how God delights to give great things in 
His name, I grew very bold and I asked God to send me 
around the world preaching the Gospel and to give me 
to see many thousands saved in Japan, China, and Aus- 
tralia, and New Zealand, and Tasmania, and India, and 
England, and Scotland, and Ireland, and Germany, and 
France, and Switzerland, and other lands. And as I 
thought of the power of Jesus’ Name I knew that God 
had heard my prayer and that I was going around the 


144 PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS 


world, and was going to see thousands saved in many 
lands. 

Do you realize that we honour the name of Christ by 
asking great things in that name? Do you realize that 
we dishonour that name by not daring to ask great things 
in that name? Oh, have faith in the power of Jesus’ 
name and dare to ask great things in His name. 

During our Civil War there was a father and mother 
in Columbus, Ohio, who had an only son, the joy of their 
hearts. Soon after the outbreak of the war he came home 
one day and said to his father and mother, “I have en- 
listed in the army.” Of course, they felt badly to have 
their son leave home, but they loved their country and 
were willing to make the sacrifice of giving their son to 
go to the war and fight for his country. After he had 
gone to the front he wrote home regularly, telling his 
father and mother about his experiences in camp and 
elsewhere. His letters were full of brightness and good 
cheer, and brought joy to the father’s and mother’s lonely 
hearts. But one day at the regular time no letter came. 
Days passed, and no letter. Weeks passed, and they 
wondered what might have happened to their boy. One 
day a letter came from the United States Government 
and in it they were told that there had been a great battle, 
that many had been killed, and that their son was among 
those who had been killed in battle. The light went out 
of that home. Days and weeks, months and years passed 
by. The war came to an end. One morning as they were 
sitting at the breakfast table the maid came in and said, 
“There is a poor, ragged fellow out at the door and he 
wanted to speak to you. But I knew you did not wish 
to speak to a man like him, and he handed me this note 
and asked me to put it in your hand.” And she put in 


PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS 145 


the hands of the father a soiled and crumpled piece of 
paper. The father opened it, and when he glanced at it 
his eyes fell upon the writing, then he started, for he 
recognized the writing of his son. The note said: 


“DEAR FATHER AND MOTHER: 
“TI have been shot and have only a short time to live, and 
I am writing you this last farewell note. As I write there is 
kneeling beside me my most intimate friend in the com- 
pany, and when the war is over he will bring you this note, 
and when he does be kind to him for Charlie’s sake. 
Your Son CHARLES,” 


There was nothing in that house that was too good for 
that poor tramp, “ For Charlie’s sake,” and there is noth- 
ing in Heaven or on earth too good, or too great, for you 
and me in Jesus’ name. Oh, be bold and ask great things 
of God In JESUS’ NAME. 


VII 
DEE PRAY RCO AT Hii 


“And this is the confidence that we have in Him, 
that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hear- 
eth us; And if we know that He heareth us whatsoever 
we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we 
have asked of Him.’—I Joun 5:14, 15, cf. R. V. 


markable statements to be found in the whole Bible 

in regard to God answering prayer, and in regard 
to our knowing that God has heard our prayer and 
granted the thing we have asked of Him. You will find 
it in I John, the fifth chapter, the 14th and 15th verses: 

“And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, 
if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us: 
and if we know that He heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we 
know that we have the petitions that we have asked of 
Him id Seat e Vie) 

Please notice carefully exactly what God tells us in 
this passage. We are told in this passage that there is 
a way in which certain people can pray so as to not only 
get the very thing that they ask, but so as to know before 
they actually get it, that God has heard their prayer and 
that therefore the thing which they have asked of Him 
He has granted to them. Listen again to these wonder- 
ful words that the Holy Spirit inspired John to write: 
“This is the confidence that we have in Him [that is, in 
God], that, ¢f we ask anything according to His will, He 

146 


| CALL your attention today to one of the most re- 


THE PRAYER OF FAITH 147 


heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever 
we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we de- 
sired [more literally, have asked] of Him.” Certainly ~ 
that is an astonishing statement: it gives to us the plain 
and positive assurance that there are some people who 
can pray in a certain way, and that if those people pray 
in that way they will not only get whatsoever they ask, 
but that furthermore they may know before they get it 
that God has heard their prayer and granted the thing 
that they have asked. It is certainly a great joy when 
one prays to be able to know that the prayer we have 
offered has been heard and the thing which we have asked 
has been granted, and to be just as sure that it is ours 
as we shall afterwards be when we actually have it in 


our hand. Ct 


I. To WuHom THE PROMISE Is MADE 


Please note, first of all, just who it is to whom God 
makes this promise. As I have said so often before, 
when you try to understand and apply the promises of 
God which you find in the Bible, you must always be very 
careful to note just exactly who the people are to whom 
the promise is made. Just who the persons are to whom 
this promise is made we are told in the immediate con- 
text, in the verse that immediately precedes, “ These 
things have I written unto you, that ye may know that 
ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the 
name of the Son of God.’ Then immediately follows 
the promise that we are studying today, so it is as clear 
as day that the promise is made to those who “ believe 
on the name of the Son of God,” to them and to nobody 
else, and anyone who does not believe on the name of the 
Son of God has no right whatever to take this promise 


148 THE PRAYER OF FAITH 


to himself, or to think that if he does take the promise 
to himself and it is not fulfilled that God’s Word has 
failed. The fault is with himself, and not with God’s 
Word. He has taken to himself a promise that was made 
to somebody else. Just what it means to believe on the 
Son of God we are told in the Gospel that was written 
by the same one who wrote this Epistle, the Gospel of 
John; John 1:12: “ But as many as received Him [that 
is, received Jesus Christ], to them gave He the right to 
become children of God, even to them that believe on His 
name.” 

So John himself interprets “ believing on the name of 
the Son of God” to mean receiving the Son of God, that 
is, receiving Him to be to ourselves what He offers Him- 
self to be to all who put their trust in Him, our personal 
Saviour Who bore our sins in His own body on the 
cross, and our Lord and Master to whom we surrender 
the absolute control of our thoughts, our will, and our 
conduct. So, then, this promise is made to those who 
have received Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour and 
trusted God to forgive them because Jesus Christ died 
on the cross in their place, and who have also received 
Him as their Lord and Master to whom they have sur- 
rendered the absolute control of their thoughts, their will, 
and their conduct, those who have made an absolute sur- 
render to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is made to 
them, and to no one else, and no one else has the least 
right to claim it. 

Just here is where many go astray, they do not really 
“believe on the name of the Son of God,” they have not 
really “received Him,’ yet they appropriate to them- 
selves this promise that was never made to them. 


THE PRAYER OF FAITH 149 


Il. How We Must Pray InN OrpER To KNOW THAT 
Gop Has HEArp Our PRAYERS AND GRANTED 
THE THING THAT WE HAvE ASKED 


Now we come to the question, How must “ those who 
believe on the name of the Son of God” pray in order 
to know that God has heard their prayer, and granted 
the thing that they asked? Read the fourteenth verse 
again, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, 
that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth 
us.” In order to know that God has heard our prayer 
and granted us the thing that we asked, we must pray 
according to His will. When we who believe on the name 
of the Son of God pray for anything that we know to be 
according to His will, then we may know, for the all- 
sufficient reason that God says so in His Word, that God 
has heard the prayer and granted us the thing that we 
ask. We may know it not because we feel it, not because 
of any inward illumination of the Holy Spirit, we may 
know it for the very best of all reasons—because God 
says so in His Word, and “ God cannot lie.” 

But is it possible for us to know what the will of God 
is, so that we can be sure while we are praying that we 
are asking something that is “according to His will?” 
We certainly can know the will of God with absolute cer- 
tainty in many cases when we pray. How CAN WE KNOW 
THE WILL oF Gop? 

1. In the first place, We may know the will of God 
by the promises in His Word. The Bible was given us 
for the specific purpose of revealing to us the will of 
God, and when we find that anything is definitely prom- 
ised in the Word of God we know that that is His will, 
for He has said so in so many words. And when we who 


150 THE PRAYER OF FAITH 


believe on the name of the Son of God go to God and 
ask Him for anything that is definitely promised in His 
Word, we may know with absolute certainty that God has 
heard our prayer and that the thing which we have asked 
of God is granted. We_.do not have to feel it—God says 
so, and that 1s enough. 

For example, God says in His Word, James 1:5 
R. V., “If any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of 
God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and 
it shall be given him.” So when I go to God and ask 
for wisdom, if I am a believer on the name of the Son 
of God, I know with absolute certainty that God has 
heard my prayer and that wisdom will be granted. 

Some years ago I was speaking ata Y. M. C. A. Bible 
Conference at Mahtomede, White Bear Lake, Minnesota; 
I was speaking on the subject of prayer. I had to hurry 
immediately from the amphitheatre to the train. As I 
passed out of the amphitheatre I saw another minister 
from Minneapolis, who was to immediately follow me on 
- the program, who was greatly excited. He stopped me 
and said, “ Mr. Torrey, ] am going to tear to pieces every- 
thing that you have said to these young men this morn- 
ing.” J replied, “If I have not spoken according to the 
Bible, I hope you will tear it to pieces. But if I have 
spoken according to the Book you better be careful how 
you try to tear it to pieces.” “ But,” he exclaimed, “ you 
have produced upon these young men the impression that 
they can pray for things and get the very thing that they 
ask for.” I replied, “I do not know whether that is the 
impression that I have produced or not, but it certainly 
is the impression that I intended to produce.” 

“But,” he said, “that is not right; you must say if it 
be according to God’s will,” I replied, “If you do not 


THE PRAYER OF FAITH 151 


know that the thing which you have asked is according 
to God’s will, then it is all right to say, If it be according 
to Thy will. But if you know God’s will, what is the 
need of saying, If it be according to Thy will?” “ But,” 
he said, “we cannot know God’s will.” I answered, 
“What was the Bible given to us for if it was not to 
reveal God’s will? Now,” I said, “when you find a 
definite promise in the Bible and take that promise to 
God, don’t you know that you have asked something ac- 
cording to His will? For example, we read in James 
1:5, ‘If any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, 
who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not ; and it shall 
be given him.’ Now,” I said, “ when you ask for wisdom 
do you not know that God is going to give it?” “ But,” 
he said, “I do not know what wisdom is.” JI said, ‘If 
you did you would not need to ask it, but whatever it 
may be, do you not know that God is going to give it?” 
He made no reply. I never heard that he tried to tear 
what I said to pieces, but I know that later he himself 
spoke very boldly on the subject of confidently asking 
God for the things that we need of Him, and that are 
according to His will. 

No, when you have a definite promise in God’s Word 
you do not need to put any “ifs” before it. All the 
promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus (II 
Cor. 1:20). They are absolutely sure, and if you plead 
any plain promise in God’s Word you need not put any 
“ifs” in your petition. You may know that you are ask- 
ing something that is according to God’s will, and it is 
your privilege to know that God has heard you; and it 
is your privilege to know that you have the thing you 
have asked; it is your privilege to get up from prayer 
with the same absolute certainty that that thing is yours 


152 THE PRAYER OF FAITH 


that you will afterward have when you actually see it in 
your hand. 

Suppose some cold winter morning when I lived in 
Chicago I had gone down on South Clark street that was 
then teeming with poor, men, and some shivering tramp 
should have come up to me and said, “ Mr. Torrey, it is 
very cold and I need an overcoat. Will you give me an 
overcoat?’’ And then I had replied, “If you will come 
over to my house this afternoon at 39 East Pearson Street, 
at two o'clock, I’ll give you an overcoat.’’ Promptly at 
two o'clock the tramp makes his appearance. I meet him 
at the door and bring him into the house. Then he says 
to me, “ Mr. Torrey, you said to me this morning on 
South Clark Street that if I would come to your house 
at two o'clock this afternoon you would give me an over- 
coat. Now, if you will, please give me that overcoat.” 
What would I say? Id say, “ Man, what did you say?” 
“T said, 1f you will, please give me that overcoat.” “ But 
why do you put any ‘if’ in? Did I not say I would?” 
“eset obo you) doubt: my wordriy si No waa aes 
why do you put in an ‘if’?”’ And why should we put 
any “ifs”? in when we take to God any promise of His 
own? Does God ever lie? There are many cases in 
which we do not know the Will of God, and in such cases 
it is all right to put in “if it be Thy will.” And even in 
cases where we do know His will, our prayers should al- 
ways be in submission to His will, for the dearest of any- 
thing to the true child of God is God’s will, but there is no 
need to put any “ifs”? in when He has revealed His will. 
To put in an “if” in such a case as that is to doubt God, 
to doubt His Word, and really is to “ make God a liar.” 

This passage of Scripture is one of the most abused 
passages in the Bible. God put it into His Word to give 


THE PRAYER OF FAITH 153 


us “confidence” when we pray. It is constantly mis- 
used to make us uncertain when we pray. Oftentimes 
when some young and enthusiastic believer is asking for 
something with great confidence, some cautious brother 
will go to him after the meeting is over and say to him, 
“ Now, my young brother, you must not be so confident 
as that in your prayers. It may not be God’s will, and 
we ought to be submissive to the will of God, and you 
should say, ‘If it be Thy will.” And so some men al- 
ways have an element of uncertainty in their prayers, and 
one would think that I John 5:14 read, “ This is the 
uncertainty that we have in Him, that we can never know 
God’s will, and therefore can never be sure that our 
prayer is heard.” But that is not the way the verse reads. 
It reads, “ This is the confidence (not uncertainty, but 
absolute confidence) that we have in him, that, if we ask 
anything according to his will, HE HEARETH us: And if we 
know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, WE KNOW THAT 
WE HAVE the petitions that we have asked of him.” Oh, 
how subtle the Devil is to take a passage of Scripture that 
God has put into His Word to fill us with confidence 
when we pray, and use it to make us uncertain when we 
pray. 

2. But can we know the will of God when we pray, 
even when there is no definite promise in regard to the 
matter about which we are praying? Yes, in many cases 
we can. How? Romans 8:26, 27 R. V. answers the 
question: “ And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth 
our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; 
but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with 
groanings which cannot be uttered; and He that search- 
eth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, 
because He maketh intercession for the saints according 


154 THE PRAYER OF FAITH 


to the will of God.’ It is the work of the Holy Spirit 
when we pray to make known to us what is the will of 
God in the matter about which we are praying, and to 
show us if the thing is according to His will, that it 1s 
according to His will. There are many things which we 
need which are not definitely promised in the Word, and 
it doesn’t follow at all that because they are not definitely 
promised in the Word that they are not “ according to the 
will of God.” It is the will of God to give us very many 
things which He has not definitely promised in His Word, 
and it is the method of God, when we pray, to give us, 
by the direct illumination of the Holy Spirit, to know His 
will even in regard to things about which He has given 
us no definite promise. 

For example, while I was pastor of the Moody Church 
in Chicago, the child of a man and woman who were 
both members of our church was taken very sick. The 
child first had the measles, and the measles were followed 
by meningitis. The child sank very low, and the doctor 
said to the mother, “I can do no more for your child. 
Your child cannot live.” She immediately hurried down 
to my house to get me to come up to their house and pray 
for her child. But I was out of town holding meetings 
in Pittsburgh. So she sent for my assistant pastor, Rev. 
W. S. Jacoby, and he went up to the house with one of 
my colleagues in the Bible Institute, and prayed for the 
child. That night when I got home from Pittsburgh he 
came around to my house to tell me about it, and he said, 
“Mr. Torrey, if I ever had an answer to my prayers in 
my life, it was today when I was praying for the Duff 
child.” He was confident that God had heard his prayer 
and that the child would be healed. And the child was 
healed right away. This was Saturday. The next morn- 


THE PRAYER OF FAITH 155 


ing the doctor called again at the house and there was 
such a remarkable change in the child that he said to Mrs. 
Duff, “ What have you done for your child?” She told 
him just what she had done. Then he said, ‘ Well, I 
will give her some more medicine.” ‘ No,” she said, 
“you will not. You said you could do no more for the 
child, that the child must die, and we went to God in 
prayer and God has healed the child. You are not going 
to take the honour to yourself by giving him some more 
medicine.” Indeed, the child was not only improved that 
morning, the child was well, and Mrs. Duff was down to 
the morning service and would have brought the child 
with her only it was such a stormy morning that she 
thought she better not take it out in the intense cold. 

Now, neither Mr. Jacoby nor I could pray for every 
sick child in that way, for it is not the will of God tc 
heal every sick child, nor every sick adult. It is God’s 
general will in regard to His children that they be well 
in body, but there are cases when God for wise purposes 
of His own does not see fit to heal the sick; but there 
are cases when He does see fit to heal the sick, and in 
those cases if we are living near to God and listening 
for the voice of His Spirit, and are entirely surrendered 
to the Spirit in our praying, the Spirit of God will make 
clear to us the will of God, and we shall know that our 
prayer is heard; and we will know that the thing is ours 
long before we actually get it. 

Take another illustration along an entirely different 
line, for the healing of the body is only one of the lines 
along which God answers prayer, and not by any means 
the most important. In my first pastorate we had a 
union meeting of all the churches of the town. In the 
course of the meetings we had a day of fasting and 


vA 


fi 


156 THE PRAYER OF FAITH 


prayer. During the morning meeting as we were praying 
God led me to pray that one of the most unlikely men in 
the town might be saved that night. He had led a wild 
roaming life; few in his family were Christians; but as 
we knelt in prayer that morning God put a great burden 
on my heart for that man’s salvation, and I prayed that 
he might come to the meeting and be saved that night. 
And as I prayed God gave me a great confidence that he 
would come and be saved tonight. And come he did that 
night, and saved he was that night. There was not a 
man in that whole town who was more unlikely to be 
saved than he. That was more than forty years ago, but 
when I was down in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a few 
years ago J met another man whose mother was saved 
about the same time, and he told me that this man was 
then living in Tennessee and was still living a Christian 
life. Now I cannot pray for the salvation of every un- 
saved person in that way, but God by His Spirit revealed 
to me His will regarding that man, and in many a case 
He has revealed His will. 

Take an illustration along still another line. One day 
when in Northfield, Mass., I received word from Chicago 
from Mr. Fitt, Mr. Moody’s son-in-law, that we needed 
five thousand dollars for the work in Chicago at once, 
and asking me to pray for it. Another member of the 
Faculty of the Bible Institute was in Northfield at that 
time, and that night we went out into a summer-house on 
my place and knelt down and prayed God to send that 
five thousand dollars. And God gave my friend great 
confidence that He had heard the prayer, and he said to 
me, “God has heard the prayer and the five thousand 
dollars will come.” Mr. Fitt and Mr. Gaylord also 
prayed in Chicago, and God gave Mr. Gaylord a great 


THE PRAYER OF FAITH 157 


confidence that the five thousand dollars would come. We 
knew it was ours, we knew that God had heard the prayer 
and that we had received the five thousand dollars. And 
a telegram came the next day (I think it was) from In- 
dianapolis, saying that five thousand dollars had been de- 
posited in a bank in Indianapolis to our account and was 
waiting our order. Though we had prayed and expected, 
Mr. Fitt could hardly believe it when he heard it, and 
sent down to our bank in Chicago and they made inquiry 
from the bank in Indianapolis if it were true, and they 
found out that it was. As far as I know, the man who 
put that money in the bank in Indianapolis at our call 
had never given a penny to the Bible Institute before. I 
did not know there was such a man in the world, and as 
far as I know he has never given a penny to the Bible 
Institute since. Now I cannot go to God every time I 
want money and think I need it and ask God for it with 
that same confidence, but there are times when I can. 
There have been many such times in my life, and God 
has never failed, and He never will. Banks sometimes 
fail; God never fails. 

To sum it all up, when God makes His will known, 
either by a specific promise of His Word or by His Holy 
Spirit while we are praying, that the thing that we ask 
for is “according to His will,” it is our privilege to know 
—if we really believe on the name of the Son of God— 
that that thing we have asked is granted, and that it 1s 
ours ; just as truly ours as it will be when afterwards we 
actually have it in our hand. 


III. PrAyvING IN FAITH 


The passage we have been studying is closely related 
to another passage in the gospel of Mark, that contains 


158 THE PRAYER OF FAITH 


a promise of our Lord Himself in regard to God answer- 
ing prayer. It is a very familiar passage; you will find 
it in Mark 11:24: “ Therefore I say unto you, What 
things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye 
receive them, and ye shall have them.’ I will not stop 
to call your attention to whom this promise is made, fur- 
ther than to say that it is made as are all the other prom- 
ises of God to answer prayer which we have been study- 
ing, to those who believe on Jesus Christ, those who are 
united to Jesus Christ by a living faith that manifests 
itself in an obedient love. This is evident from the con- 
text, as you can find out for yourself if you will read the 
promise in its context. 

And how must we pray in order to get the thing that 
we ask? WE MUST PRAY IN FAITH, that 1s, we must pray 
with a confident expectation of getting the very thing 
that we ask. There are those who say that any prayer 
that is in submission to the will of God, and in faith in 
Him and dependence on God, is a prayer of faith. But 
it is not “ the prayer of faith” in the Bible sense of “the 
prayer of faith.’ “The prayer of faith” in the Bible 
' sense of “the prayer of faith,” is the prayer that has no. 
doubt whatever that God has heard the prayer and granted. 
the specific thing “ which we have asked of Him.” This. 
is evident from James 1:5-7 R. V.: “ But if any of you 
lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all 
liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 
But let him ask in faith nothing doubting: for he that 
doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind. 
and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall re- 
ceive anything of the Lord.’ No matter how positive the. 
promises of God may be, we will never receive them in: 
our own experience till we absolutely believe them, and. 


THE PRAYER OF FAITH 159 


the prayer that gets what it asks is “the prayer of faith,” 
that is, the prayer that has no doubt whatever of getting 
the very thing that is asked. 

This comes out more clearly in the Revised Version of 
Mark 11:24 than in the Authorized. Let me read you 
from the English Revision, which is more accurate in this 
case than the American Revision: “ Therefore I say 
unto you, all things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, 
believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have 
them.’”’ When we pray to God, and pray according to 
His will as known by the promises of His Word, or as 
known by the Holy Spirit revealing His will to us, we 
should confidently believe that the very thing that we have 
asked is granted us. We should “ believe that ” we “ have 
received,’ and what we thus believe we have received we 
shall afterwards have in actual personal experience. 

Take for example the matter of praying for “the bap- 
tism with the Holy Spirit.” When anyone prays for the 
Holy Spirit, anyone who is united to Jesus Christ by a 
living faith that reveals itself in an obedient love, anyone 
who has received Jesus Christ as their Saviour and is 
trusting God to forgive them on the sole ground that 
Jesus Christ died in their place, and who has received 
Jesus Christ as their Lord and Master, and surrendered 
all their thoughts and purposes and conduct to His con- 
trol, they may know that they have prayed for something 
according to His will, for Jesus Christ definitely says in 
Luke 11:13, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give 
good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your 
heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask 
him?” And as he knows that he has asked something 
which is according to God’s will as He has clearly re- 
vealed it in His Word, it is his privilege to say, “I have 


160 THE PRAYER OF FAITH 


what I asked. I have the Holy Spirit.” It is not a ques- 
tion at all of whether he feels that he has received the 
Holy Spirit or not; it is not a question of some remark- 
able experience: it is simply a question of taking God at 
His Word and that the one who prays believes that he 
has received, just because God says so. And what he 
has taken by naked faith on the Word of God, simply 
believing he has received, because God says so, he will 
afterwards have in actual experimental possession. There 
is no need that he go to any “ tarrying meeting,” no need 
that he work himself up into a frenzy of emotionalism, 
no need that he fall into a trance, or fall into unconscious- 
ness, an experience utterly foreign to anything described 
in the New Testament. He has a far better ground for 
his assurance that he has received what he asked than any 
feeling or any ecstasy; he has the immutable Word of 
God, ‘‘ God Who cannot lie.” 
“ Praying in faith, that is, praying with an unquestion- 
ing belief that you will receive just exactly what you ask; 
_ yes, believing as you pray that God has heard your prayer 
and that you have received the thing that you ask, is one 
of the most important factors in obtaining what we ask 
when we pray. As James puts it in Jas. 1:6, 7, “ Let 
him ask in faith, nothing doubting: for he that doubteth 
is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. 
For let not that man think that he shall receive anything 
of the Lord.’ That is, let not the man who has any 
doubts that God has heard his prayer, think that he shall 
receive anything of the Lord. 
we~ So the tremendously important question arises, How 
can we pray the prayer of faith? How can we pray with 
a confident, unquestioning certainty in our minds, that 
God has heard our prayer and granted the thing that we 


THE PRAYER OF FAITH 161 


ask? This has been partly answered in what we have 
already said, but in order that it may be perfectly clear, 
let us repeat the substance of it again. 

1. To pray the prayer of faith we must, first of all, 
study the Word of God, especially the promises of God, 
and find of what the will of God is and build our pray- , 
ers on the written promises of God. Intelligent faith,” — 
and that is the only kind of faith that counts with God, 
must have a warrant. We cannot believe by just trying 
to make ourselves believe. Such belief as that is not faith 
but credulity, it is “make believe.” 

THE GREAT WARRANT FOR INTELLIGENT FAITH Is Gop’s 
Worp. As Paul puts it in Romans 10:17, “ Faith com- 
eth by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The 
faith that is built upon the sure Word of God is an in- 
telligent faith, it has something to rest upon. So if we 
would pray the prayer of faith we must study much the 
Word of God, and find out what God has definitely prom- 
ised, and then with God’s promise in mind approach God 
and ask Him for that thing which He has promised. 

Here is the point at which many go astray. Here is 
the point at which I went astray in my early prayer life. 
Not long after my conversion I got hold of this promise 
of our Lord Jesus in Mark 11:24, “ Therefore I say unto 
you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe 
that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” I said to 
myself, “ All that I need to do if I want anything is to 
ask God for it and then make myself believe that I am 
going to get it, and I'll have it.” So whenever I wanted 
anything I asked God for it and tried to make myself be- 
lieve I was going to get it, but I didn’t get it, for it was 
only “ make-believe,” and -I did not really believe at all. 
But I later learned that “ faith cometh by hearing, and 


wae 


162 THE PRAYER OF FAITH 


hearing by the Word of God,’ and that if I wished to 
pray “the prayer of faith” I must have some warrant 
for my faith, some ground upon which to rest my faith, 
and that the surest of all grounds for faith was the Word 
of God. So when I desired anything of God I would 
search the Scriptures to find if there was some promise 
that covered that case, and then go to God and plead His 
own promise; and thus resting upon that promise I would 
believe that God had heard, and He had, and I got what 
I asked. 

One of the mightiest men of prayer of the last genera- 
tion was George Mueller of Bristol, England, who in the 
last sixty years of his life (he lived to be ninety-two or 
ninety-three) obtained the English equivalent of seven 
million four hundred dollars by prayer. But George 
Mueller never prayed for a thing just because he wanted 
it, or even just because he felt it was greatly needed for 
God’s work. When it was laid upon George Mueller’s 
heart to pray for anything, he would search the Scriptures 
‘to find if there was some promise that covered the case. 
Sometimes he would search the Scriptures for days be- 
fore he presented his petition to God. And then when 
he found the promise, with his open Bible before him and 
his finger upon that promise, he would plead that promise 
and so he received what he asked. He always prayed with 
an open Bible before him. 

2. But this is not all that is to be said about how to 
pray the prayer of faith. It is possible for us to have 
faith in many an instance when there is no definite 
promise covering the case, and to pray with the absolute 
assurance that God has heard our prayer, to believe with 
a faith that has not a shadow of doubt in it, that we 
have received what we have asked. The way that comes 


THE PRAYER OF FAITH 163 


to pass we are plainly told in the passage to which I have 
already referred in the earlier part of this sermon, 
Romans 8:26, 27 R. V. dn like manner the Spirit also 
helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as 
we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for 
us with groanings which cannot be uttered, and He that 
searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the 
Spirit, because HE maketh intercession for the saints 
according to the will of God.’ That is to say, the Holy 
Spirit, as we have already said, oftentimes makes clear to 
us as we pray what it is the will of God to do, so that 
listening to His voice we can pray with absolute confidence, 
with a confidence that has not a shadow of doubt, that 
God has heard our prayer and granted the thing that we 
asked, 

My first experience, at least the first that I recall, of 
this wonderful privilege of knowing the will of God, and 
praying with confident faith even when one had no defi- 
nite promise in the written Word that God would hear 
the prayer, came very early in my ministry. There was 
a young dentist in my congregation whose father was a 
member of our church. This dentist was taken very ill 
with typhoid fever, he went down to the very gates of 
death. I went down to see him and found him uncon- 
scious. The doctor and his father were by the bedside, 
and the doctor said to me, “‘ He cannot live. The crisis 
is past and it has turned the wrong way. ‘There is no 
possibility of his recovery.”” I knelt down to pray, and 
as I prayed a great confidence came into my heart, an ab- 
solutely unshakable confidence that God had heard my 
prayer and that that man was to be raised up. As I got 
up from my knees I said to the father and the doctor, 
“ Ebbie will get well. He will not die at this time.” The 


164 THE PRAYER OF FAITH 


doctor smiled and said, “ That is all right, Mr. Torrey, 
from your standpoint, but he cannot live. He will die.” 
I replied, ‘‘ Doctor, that is all right from your standpoint, 
but he cannot die; he will live.’ I went to my home. 
Not long after word was brought to me that the young 
man was dying. They told me what he was doing, and 
said that no one ever did that except just when they were 
dying. I calmly replied, “ He is not dying. He will not 
die. He will get well.” I knew he would: he did. The 
last I knew he was living yet, and his healing took place 
between forty and forty-five years ago. But I cannot 
pray for every sick man in that way, not eveh though he 
is an earnest Christian, which this man was not at that 
time. Sometimes it is God’s will to heal, usually it is 
God’s will to heal, if the conditions are met; but it is not 
always God’s will to heal. “The prayer of faith shall 
save the sick,” God tells us in James 5:15; but it is not 
always possible to pray “the prayer of faith,” only when 
God makes it possible by the leading of His Holy Spirit. 

But “the prayer of faith” will not only heal the sick, 
it will bring many other blessings, blessings of far more 
importance than physical healing. It will bring salvation 
to the lost; it will bring power into our service; it will 
bring money into the treasury of the Lord; it will bring 
great revivals of religion. In my first pastorate one of 
the first persons to accept Christ was a woman who had 
been a backslider for many years. But she not only came 
back to the Lord, but came back in a very thorough way. 
Not long after her conversion God gave to her a great 
spirit of prayer for a revival in our church and com- 
munity. When I had been there about a year she was 
called to go out to California with a sick friend, but be- 
fore going she came into the prayer-meeting on her last 


THE PRAYER OF FAITH 165 


prayer-meeting night there, and said, “ God has heard my 
prayer for a revival. You are going to have a great re- 
vival here in the church.” And we did have a revival 
not only in the church but in the whole community, a re- 
vival that transformed every church in the community, 
and brought many souls to Christ. And the revival went 
on again the next year, and the next, and the next until 
I left that field. And it went on under the pastor who 
followed ee and the pastor who followed him. 

Oh, yes, “the prayer of faith” is the great secret oft 
getting the things of all kinds that we need in our per- 
sonal life; that we need in our service; that we need in 
our work; that we need in our Church; that we need 
everywhere. There is no limit to what “the prayer of 
faith can do;” and if we would pray more and pray more 
intelligently, and pray “the prayer of faith,” there is no 


telling what we could do as a church and as an Institute..-~ 


But as we have said, in order to pray “the prayer of 
faith ’ we must first of all study our Bible much in order 
that we may know the promises of God, what they are, 
how large they are, how definite they are, and just ex- 
actly what is promised. In addition to that we must live 
so near to God, be so fully surrendered to the will of God, 
have such a delight in God and so feel our utter depend- 
ence upon the Spirit of God, that the Holy Spirit Him- 
self can guide us in our prayers and indicate clearly to 
us what the will of God is, and make us sure while we 
pray that we have asked for something that is according 
to God’s will, and thus enable us to pray with the abso- 
lute confidence that God has heard our prayer, and that 
“we have received ” the things that we asked of Him. 
Here is where many of us fail in our prayer life: We 


6c 


either do not know that it is our privilege to “ pray in 


166 THE PRAYER OF FAITH 


the Spirit,” that is, to pray under the Spirit’s guidance; 
or else we do not realize our utter dependence upon the 
Holy Spirit, and cast ourselves upon Him to lead us when 
we pray, and therefore we pray for the things which our 
own heart prompts us to_pray for, our own selfish desires ; 
or else we are not in such an attitude toward God that the 
Spirit of God can make His voice heard in our hearts. 

Oh, that we might all be made to realize today the im- 
measurable blessings for ourselves, for our friends, and 
for the church and for the world, that lie within the reach 
of “the prayer of faith,” and determine that we would 
pray the prayer of faith; and then get down to the study 
of the Word of God so that we could know God’s will 
and what to pray for; and be in such a relation toward 
God, be fully surrendered to His will and delight in Him- 
self, and in utter, constant dependence upon the Holy 
Spirit, looking to the Holy Spirit that as we pray it 
might not be so much we who pray as the Holy Spirit 
praying through us. Then we would soon see this spir- 
itually desert city of Los Angeles, and our spiritually 
desert churches, “ blossom as the rose.” 


VITl 


PRAYING THROUGH: AND PRAYING IN 
THE HOLY SPIRIT 


“Men ought always to pray, and not to faint,”’—LUKE 
| body Gs 

“ Though he will not rise and give him, because he ts 
his friend, yet because of his tmportunity he will rise 
and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto 
you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall 
find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.’—LUKE 
1135;.9. 

“With all prayer and supplication praying at all sea- 
sons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perse~ 
verance and supplication for all the saints,’—Epu. 


6:18 
I. Prayinc THRouGH 


HERE are two passages in the Gospel of Luke 
which throw a flood of light upon the question, 


What sort of praying it is that prevails with God 
and obtains what it seeks from Him; and also upon the 
question, Why it is that many prayers of God’s own chil- 
dren come short of obtaining that which we seek of God. 
The first of these two passages you will find in Luke 
11:5-8; our Lord Jesus Himself is the speaker: 

“ And He said unto them, Which of you shall have a 
friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto 
him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine 
is come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set 
before him; and he from within shall answer and say, 

167 


168 PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 


Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children 
are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee? I say 
unto you, Though he will not rise and give him because 
he is his friend, yet because of his wmportunity he will 
arise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say 
unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye 
shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For 
every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh find- 
eth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” 

The central lesson in this parable of our Lord’s is, that, 
When we pray, if we do not obtain the thing the first 
time we ask for it, we should pray again; and if we do 
— not obtain it the second time, we should pray a third time; 
and 1f we do not obtain tt the hundredth time we pray, 
we should go on praying until we do get it. We should 
do much thinking before we ask anything of God and be 
clear that the thing that we ask is according to His will; 
we should not rush heedlessly into God’s presence and ask 
for the first thing that comes into our mind without giv- 
ing proper thought to the question of whether it is really 
a thing that we ought to have or not; but when we have 
decided that we should pray for the thing, we should 
keep on praying until we get it. The word translated 
“importunity ” in the eighth verse is a deeply significant 
word. Its primary meaning is “shamelessness,” that is, 
it sets forth the persistent determination in prayer to God 
that will not be put to shame by any apparent refusal 
on God’s part to grant the thing that we ask. This is 
a very startling way that our Lord Jesus employs to set 
forth the necessity of “importunity ’’ and persistence in 
prayer. It is as if the Lord Jesus would have us under- 
stand that God would have us draw nigh to Him witha 
resolute determination to obtain the things that we seek, 


PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 169 


a determination that will not be put to shame by any seem- 
ing refusal or delay on God’s part. 

Our Heavenly Father delights in the holy boldness on 
our part that will not take “no” for an answer. The 
reason why He delights in it is, because it is an expres- 
sion of great faith, and nothing pleases God more than 
faith. We have an illustration of this holy boldness in 
the woman of Syro-Phoenicia in the fifteenth chapter of 
Matthew, verses twenty-one to twenty-eight. She came 
to Jesus Christ for the healing of her daughter. She 
cried, ‘““ Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; 
my daughter is grievously vexed with a demon.” But our 
Lord seemed to pay no attention whatever to her ; as Mat- 
thew puts it, “ He answered her not a word. And His 
disciples came [to Him] and besought Him, saying, Send 
her away for she crieth after us.” In spite of His ap- 
parent deafness to her appeal she kept right on crying. 
Then He turned to her with an apparently more positive 
rebuff, saying, ““I was not sent but unto the lost sheep 
of the house of Israel,’ and she was not of the House 
of Israel. Then she worshipped Him and kept on calling 
to Him, saying, “ Lord, help me.” And then came what 
almost appears like a cruel rebuff, when our Lord said, 
“Tt is not meet to take the children’s bread and cast it 
to the dogs.” (The word that He used for “dogs” was 
a peculiar word that meant a little pet dog, and was not 
at all as harsh as it seems, although it was an apparent 
refusal to hear her prayer. But, as we shall see, our 
Lord was simply putting to the test her faith that she 
might get an even larger blessing.) Then she said, “ Yea, 
Lord: for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from 
their master’s table.” She would not take “no” for an 
answer. And then came one of the most wonderful words 


170 PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 


of commendation that ever fell from the lips of our Lord. 
This is the way Matthew puts it: “ Then Jesus answered 
and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it 
done unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was 
healed from that hour.” That sort of thing pleases God. 
He would have us have that faith in His loving kindness 
and in Himself that even when He seems not to hear will 
trust Him still to hear. 

God does not always give us the things we ask the first 
time we ask them, but then we should not give up; no, 
we should keep on praying until we do get. We should 
not only pray, but we should PRAY THROUGH. 

It is deeply significant that this parable to persist in 
prayer comes almost immediately after the request on the 
part of the disciples of our Lord, in which they say, 
“Lord, teach us to pray.” Then follows Luke’s version 
of the so-called “ Lord’s Prayer,” really the disciples’ 
prayer, and then comes this parable. 

The same lesson is taught in a very striking way in the 
second passage in Luke to which I have already referred, 
Luke 18:1-8: “And he spake a parable unto them to 
the end that they ought always to pray, and not to faint; 
saying, There was in a city a judge, who feared not God, 
and regarded not man: and there was a widow in that 
city; and she came oft unto him, saying, Avenge me of 
mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but af- 
terward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, 
nor regard man; yet because this widow troubleth me, I 
will avenge her, lest she wear me out by her continual 
coming. And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous 
judge saith. And shall not God avenge His elect, that 
cry to Him day and night, and yet He is long-suffering 
over them? I say unto you, that He will avenge them 


PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 171 


speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, 
shall he find faith (literally, “the faith’) on the earth?” 
What the central lesson in this parable is, we find in the 
words with which our Lord Jesus opens the parable, 
which are really the text of the whole parable; these 
words are, “ Men ought always to pray, and not to faint,” 
the clear meaning of which is, that when we begin to 
pray we ought to pray on and on until we get the thing 
that we desire of God. The exact force of the parable 
is, that if even an unrighteous judge will yield to per- 
sistent prayer and grant the thing that he did not wish 
to grant, how much more will a loving God yield to the 
persistent cries of His children and give the things that 
He longs to give all the time, but which it would not be 
wise to give, would not be for the person’s own good to 
give, unless they were trained to that persevering faith 
that will not take “no” for an answer. So we see again 
that God does not always give us at the first asking what 
we desire of Him in prayer. 

Why is it that God does not give to us the very first 
time we ask Him, the things that we ask of Him? The 
answer is plain: God would do more for us, and better 
for us, than to merely give us that thing. He would do 
us the far greater good of training us into persistent 
faith. The things that we get by our other forms of ef- 
fort than prayer to God, do not always become ours the 
first time we make an effort to get them; for our own 
good God compels us to be persistent in our effort, and 
just so God does not always give us what we ask in 
prayer the first time we pray. Just as He would train 
us to be strong men and women along the other lines of 
effort, so also He would train us to be and make us to 
be strong men and women of prayer by compelling us to 


172 PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 


pray hard for the best things. He compels us to “ Pray 
through.” 

Many people in these days tell us that we ought not 
to pray for the same thing a second time. Sometimes 
they tell us that the way to pray is to ask God for a thing 
and then “take it” by faith the first time we ask. That 
is true oftentimes: when we find a thing definitely prom- 
ised in the Word we ought to rest upon the naked Word 
of God, and when we have prayed, just as we saw yester- 
day, know that we have asked something according to 
God’s will and therefore that the prayer is heard and that 
we have received ; and resting there ask no more but claim 
the thing as ours. But that is only one side of the truth. 
The other side of the truth is, that there are times when 
it is not made clear the first time, nor the second time, 
nor the third time, that the thing we ask is according to 
His will and that therefore the prayer is heard and the 
thing asked granted ; and in such a case we ought to pray 
on and on and on. While doubtless there are times when 
we are able through faith in the Word, or through the 
clear leading of the Holy Spirit, to claim a thing the first 
time that which we have asked it of God; nevertheless, 
beyond a question there are other times when we must 
pray again and again and again for the same thing before 
we get our answer. Those who claim that they have got- 
ten beyond praying twice for the same thing have either 
gotten beyond our Master, our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ, or else they have not gotten up to Him; for we 
are told distinctly regarding Him in Matthew 26: 44, 
“ And he left them again, and went away, and prayed a 
third time, saying again the same words.” ‘The truth is, 
they have not yet gotten up to the Master; not that they 
have gotten beyond Him. 


PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 173 


There are those, and there are many of them, who, 
when they pray for a thing once or twice and do not get 
it, stop praying; and they call it “ submission to the will 
of God” to pray no longer when God does not grant 
their request at the first or second asking, and they say, 
“Well, perhaps it is not God’s will.’ They call 
that submission to the will of God. But as a rule 
this is not submission to the will of God: it is spir- 
itual laziness and lack of determination in that most 
all-important of all human lines of effort, prayer. None 
of us ever think of calling it submission to the will 
of God, when we give up after one or two efforts to ob- 
tain things by our other efforts than prayer. In those 
cases we call it lack of strength of character. When the 
strong man of action starts out to accomplish a thing, if 
he does not accomplish it the first, or the second, or the 
hundredth time, he keeps hammering away until he does 
accomplish it; and just so the strong man of prayer, when 
he starts to pray for a thing, keeps on praying until he 
prays it through and obtains what he seeks. How fond 
we are of calling bad things in our conduct by good 
names, calling our spiritual inertia and laziness and in- 
difference “ submission to the will of God.” We should 
be very careful about what we ask from God, but when 
we do begin to pray for a thing we should never give up 
praying for it until we get it, or until God definitely makes 
it very clear to us that it is not His will to give it. 

I am glad that God does not always give us, the first 
time we ask, the things that we seek from Him. There 
is no more blessed training in prayer than that which 
comes through being compelled to ask again and again 
and again, even through a long period of years, before 
one obtains that which he seeks from God. Then when 


174 PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 


it does come what a sense we have that God really is, and 
that God really answers prayer. 

I recall an experience of my own that was full of 
blessing to me, and full of encouragement to my faith. 
In my first pastorate there were two persons whom God 
put upon my heart and for whose salvation I prayed 
through my entire pastorate there. But I left that field 
of labour without seeing either one of them converted. I 
went to Germany for further study, and then took a new 
pastorate in Minneapolis, but I kept on praying every 
day for those two persons. JI went back to the place 
where I began my ministry to hold a series of meetings, 
praying every day for the conversion of those two per- 
sons. Then one night in that series of meetings, when I 
gave out the invitation for all who would accept the Lord 
Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, those two persons 
arose side by side. There was no special reason why they 
should be side by side, for they were not relatives. Oh, 
and when I saw those two persons for whom I had 
prayed every day through all those years standing up side 
by side to accept the Lord Jesus Christ, what an over- 
whelming sense came over my soul that there is a God, 
and that He hears prayer if we meet the conditions of 
prevailing prayer, and follow the method of prevailing 
prayer taught in His own Word. 

We find right here why it is that many prayers fail of 
accomplishing that which we seek from God. We pray 
and pray and pray, and are almost up to the verge of the 
attainment of that for which we are praying, and right 
then, when God is just about to answer the prayer, we 
stop and we miss the blessing. For example, in many 
churches and in many communities there are people who 
are praying for a revival, and the revival does not come 


PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 175 


at once, it does not come for some time, and they keep 
on praying, and they have nearly prayed through, they 
are right on the verge of attaining what they sought, and 
if they prayed a little longer the revival would have 
broken upon them. But they get discouraged, throw up 
their hands, and quit. Just on the border of the blessing, 
but they do not cross into the promised land. In January, 
1900 or 1901, the Faculty of the Bible Institute of Chi- 
cago instituted a late prayer-meeting Saturday nights from 
nine to ten o'clock, to pray for a world-wide revival. 
After we had been praying for some time the thing hap- 
pened that I knew would happen when we began; people 
came to me, or to my colleague that was most closely 
identified with me in the conduct of these meetings, and 


they would say, “ Has the revival come?” “ No, not as 
far as we can see.” ‘‘ When is it coming?” ‘“ We don’t 
know.” “How long are you going to pray?” “ Until 


it comes.” And come it did, a revival that began there 
in that prayer-meeting room of the Bible Institute in 
Chicago and then broke out in far-away China, and Japan, 
and Australia, and New Zealand, and Tasmania, and 
India, and swept around the world, with most marvelous 
manifestations of God’s saving power, not merely through 
Mr. Alexander and myself, but through a multitude of 
others in India and Wales and elsewhere. In Wales, for 
example, under Evan Roberts and others, resulting in one 
hundred thousand professed conversions in twelve months. 
And I believe that God is looking to us today to pray 
through again. 

I prayed fifteen long years for the conversion of my 
oldest brother. He seemed to be getting farther and 
farther away from any hope of conversion, but I prayed 
on, and one morning, my first winter in Chicago, after 


176 PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 


fifteen years of praying, never missing a single day, God 
said to me as I knelt in prayer, “1 have heard your 
prayer. You need not pray any more, your brother is 
going to be converted.” And within two weeks my 
brother was in my home, shut in with sickness which made 
it impossible for him to leave my home, shut in for two 
weeks, and then the day he left accepting Christ over in 
the Bible Institute in Mr. Moody’s office, where he and 
I went to talk and pray together. 

I told this incident once when I was holding meetings 
in a certain city. An elderly woman came to me at the 
close of the meeting and she said, “I have been praying 
for the conversion of my brother, who is sixty-three years 
old, for many years; but, a short time ago, I gave up 
and stopped praying; but,” she added, “I am going to 
begin my prayers again.” And within two weeks of that 
time she came to me and said, “I have heard from my 
brother and he has accepted Christ.” Oh, men and 
women, pray through; pray through; PRAY: THROUGH. 
Do not just begin to pray and pray a little while and 
throw up your hands and quit, but pray, and pray, and 
pray, until God bends the heavens and comes down. 


II. PRAYING IN THE Hoty SPIRIT 


There is another passage closely connected with the two 
that we have just been studying, and that is closely con- 
nected with them in thought, to which IJ shall now call 
your attention. It is found in Ephesians 6:18: 

“With all prayer and supplication praying at all sea- 
sons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perse- 
verance and supplication for all the saints.” 

The three words to which I wish to call your especial 
attention are these, “In the Spirit.’ We find the same 


PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 177 


thought in the Epistle of Jude, verses twenty and twenty- 
one: ‘‘ But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your 
most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep your- 
selves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our 
Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” In those words, 
“ praying in the Holy Spirit,” and “ praying in the Holy 
Ghost,’ we find one of the two greatest secrets of pre- 
vailing prayer. 

The other of the two greatest secrets of prevailing 
prayer is found in the words of our Lord Jesus in John 
14:13, 14: “ And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, 
that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the 
Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, that will I 
do.” Those words we studied day before yesterday, 
“Praying in the name of the Lord Jesus,’ and “ Praying 
in the Holy Ghost” are the two great secrets of prevail- 
ing prayer. If anyone should ask me, “ What is the great 
secret of holy living,’ I would say at once, “ Living in 
the Holy Spirit.” If anyone should ask me, “ What is 
the great secret of effective service for Jesus Christ,” I 
should reply at once, “ Serving in the Holy Spirit.” If 
anyone should ask me, “ What is the one greatest secret 
of profitable Bible study?” I would reply, “ Studying in 
the Holy Spirit.’ And if anyone should ask me, what 
was the one great all-inclusive secret of prevailing prayer, 
I should reply, “ Praying in the Holy Spirit.’ It is the 
prayer that the Holy Spirit inspires that God the Father 
answers. 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO PRAY IN THE Hoty Guost?P 
To pray “in the Holy Ghost,” or to “ pray in the Holy 
Spirit,’ means to pray as the Holy Spirit, our ever 
present, indwelling Friend, Counsellor, and Guide, the 
“other Comforter,” whom our Lord Jesus Himself 


178 PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 


promised us when He Himself left this world (John 
14: 15-17, 26), and Who has taken the place of our Lord 
during His absence from us, inspires us and guides us 
to pray. Over and over again in what we have studied 
in these sermons on prayer we have seen our dependence 
upon the Holy Spirit if we are to pray aright. When we 
were studying Acts 12:5 in our sermon, “ How to Pray 
so as to Get What We Ask,” we saw it was the Holy 
Spirit, whose work it was to lead us into the presence of 
God and to make God real to us, so that we were really 
praying “unto God;”’ we saw also that it was He who 
gave us that intense earnestness in prayer that prevails 
with God. And yesterday when we were studying, How 
to pray “ according to the will of God,” and how to pray 
“the prayer of faith,” we saw that it was the Holy Spirit 
who revealed to us what God’s will was as we prayed, 
and Who led us to pray according to His will so that we 
might know as we prayed that we had asked something 
that was according to God’s will, and might know that 
the prayer was heard. 

1. What are the characteristics of the prayer that is 
‘in the Holy Spirit,’ the characteristics of the praying 
which the Holy Spirit inspires? 

(1) The first characteristic of the prayer that is in the 
Holy Spirit is intense earnestness. This we see in 
Romans 8:26: “And in like manner the Spirit also 
helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as 
we ought; but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for 
us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” 

As we saw in studying Acts 12:5, the prayer that pre- 
vails with God is the prayer into which we throw our 
whole heart, the prayer of intense earnestness; and it is 
the Holy Spirit who inspires us to that intense earnestness 


€ 


PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 179 


in prayer. Oh, how cold and formal we are in many of 
our prayers. How little intense longing there is in our 
souls to obtain the thing that we ask. We pray even for 
the salvation of the lost with much indifference, though 
we ought to realize that if our prayers are not heard they 
are going to spend eternity in hell. But men and women 
whose prayer life is under the control of the Holy Spirit, 
pray with intense earnestness; they cry mightily to God; 
there is a great burden of prayer in their hearts; they 
pray sometimes with groanings which cannot be uttered. 
Mr. Finney tells us about a man named Abel Clary. He 
says of him, “ He had been licensed to preach; but his 
spirit of prayer was such, he was so burdened with the 
souls of men, that he was not able to preach much, his 
whole time and strength being given to prayer. The 
burden of his soul would frequently be so great that he 
was unable to stand, and he would writhe and groan in 
agony. I was well acquainted with him, and knew some- 
thing of the wonderful spirit of prayer that was upon 
him. He was a very silent man, as almost all are who 
have that powerful spirit of prayer.’’ Abel Clary was of 
great assistance to Mr. Finney, simply by praying, in his 
work in Rochester, N. Y., where a revival sprang up the 
report of which resulted in revivals all over the country, 
and which, it is said, brought one hundred thousand souls 
to Christ in a year. 

Of Mr. Clary’s work in Rochester, Mr. Finney writes, 
“The first I knew of his being in Rochester, a gentleman 
who lived about a mile west of the city called on me one 
day and asked me if I knew a Mr. Abel Clary, a minister. 
I told him that I knew him well. ‘ Well,’ he said, ‘he 
is at my house, and has been there for some time, and I 
don’t know what to think of him.’ I said, ‘I have not 


180 PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 


seen him at any of our meetings.’ ‘No,’ he replied, ‘he 
cannot go to meeting, he says. He prays nearly all the 
time, day and night, and in such agony of mind that I 
do not know what to make of it. Sometimes he cannot 
even stand on his knees, but will lie prostrate on the floor, 
and groan and pray in a manner that quite astonishes me.’ 
I said to the brother, ‘I understand it: please keep still. 
It will all come out right; he will surely prevail.’”’ Mr. 
Finney says of Mr. Clary in another place, “I think it 
was the second Sabbath that I was at Auburn, at this time 
I observed in the congregation the solemn face of Mr. 
Clary. He looked as if he was borne down with an agony 
of prayer. Being well acquainted with him, and knowing 
the great gift of God that was upon him, the spirit of 
prayer, I was very glad to see him there. He sat in the 
pew with his brother, the doctor, who was also a pro- 
fessor of religion, but who had nothing by experience, I 
should think, of his brother Abel’s great power with God. 
At intermission, as soon as I came down from the pulpit, 
Mr. Clary, with his brother, met me at the pulpit stairs, 
and the doctor invited me to go home with him and spend 
the intermission and get some refreshments. I did so. 

“ After arriving at his house we were soon summoned 
to the dinner table. We gathered about the table, and Dr. 
Clary turned to his brother and said, ‘ Brother Abel, will 
you ask the blessing?’ Brother Abel bowed his head and 
began, audibly, to ask a blessing. He had uttered but a 
sentence or two when he broke instantly down, moved 
suddenly back from the table, and fled to his chamber. 
The doctor supposed he had been taken suddenly ill, and 
rose up and followed him. In a few moments he came 
down and said, ‘Mr. Finney, Brother Abel wants to see 
you. Said I, ‘ What ails him?’ Said he, ‘I do not know 


PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 181 


but he says you know. He appears in great distress, but 
I think it is the state of his mind.’ I understood it ina 
moment, and went to his room. He lay groaning upon 
the bed, the Spirit making intercession for him, and in 
him, with groanings that could not be uttered. I had 
barely entered the room when he made out to say, ‘ Pray, 
brother Finney.’ I knelt down and helped him in prayer, 
by leading his soul out for the conversion of sinners. I 
continued to pray until his distress passed away, and then 
I returned to the dinner table.” A wonderful revival 
broke out in Auburn, hundreds of souls were converted 
in six weeks. 

Oh, that we had people in our Church here, and in our 
Institute, who knew how to pray like that. I believe that 
the greatest need of the Church of Jesus Christ in 
America today, and the Church of Jesus Christ through- 
out the world, is men and women who pray in the Holy 
Spirit, with the intense earnestness that He gives, and He 
alone gives. 

(2) The second characteristic of Praying in the Holy 
Spirit is intelligent praying, perfect wisdom im our pray- 
ing, praying for things that are according to the will of 
God. This comes out in the next verse, Romans 8:27: 

“And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is 
the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for 
the saints according to the will of God.” We do not need 
to stop on that here, for we dwelt upon it yesterday. 

(3) The third characteristic of the praying that ts really 
“Praying in the Holy Spirit,’ 1s complete assurance that 
God has heard and answered our prayer. This we saw 
yesterday in studying Mark 11:24, the prayer of faith. 
It is the prayer that the Holy Spirit inspires that is really 
“the prayer of faith,’ and the one who so prays knows 


182 PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 


that he is praying “according to the will of God” and 
has assurance without a shadow of doubt that God has 
heard and answered his prayer. 

(4) The fourth characteristic of the praying that is 
really “Praying in the Holy Spirit” is determination in 
our praying, the determination to get what we ask from 
God, a persistence m asking until we do get it. This 
comes out clearly in the passage that we were studying 
a little while ago, Ephesians 6: 18, listen again: “ With 
all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the 
Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and 
supplication for all the saints.’ What a marvelous set- 
ting forth, by a piling up of words of deepest significance, 
the determination and perseverance in prayer that comes 
from the Holy Spirit having control of our prayer life. 
We do not need to dwell upon that now; for we have 
just been talking about it in the earlier part of this chap- 
ter. Such are the characteristics of the praying that is 
really in the Holy Spirit. 

Z. We come now to the intensely practical question, 
and the immediately important question, “ How may we 
pray in the Holy Spirit? That is, how can we make sure 
that the Spirit of God is guiding us in our prayer, make 
sure that our prayers are not merely the promptings of 
our own selfish desires but the sure leadings of the Spirit 
of God within us? The answer to this all-important 
question is very plainly set forth in the Word of God. 

(1) First of all, If we are to pray in the Spirit, we 
must surrender our wills and ourselves absolutely and 
unreservedly to God. This comes out in many places in 
Scripture. For example, it comes out in Acts 5: 32, 
where we read: “ And we are witnesses of these things; 
and so is the Holy Spirit, Whom God hath given to them 


PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 183 


that obey Him.’ Here we are plainly taught that God 
gives the Holy Spirit “to them that obey Him,” and to 
them only; and the heart of obedience is in the will, the 
surrender of the will and the surrender of one’s self to 
God. Unless we make this absolute surrender God can- 
not take control of our lives by His Holy Spirit, and He 
cannot take control of our prayer life any more than any 
other part of our life. Our surrender to Him must ex- 
tend to our praying as well as to the other spheres of 
our activities. 

(2) Inthe second place. If we would pray in the Holy 
Spirit, we must scrupulously obey God in every depart- 
ment of our lives. Disobedience at any point of our life 
grieves the Holy Spirit and makes it impossible for Him 
to control us in our actions, and it is just as impossible 
for Him to take control of our prayer life as it is to take 
charge of any other part of our life. 

In order to obey God we must study the Word of God 
every day of our lives to find out what the will of God 
is, and then whenever we find it do it every time. If we 
refuse to do it at any point the Holy Spirit cannot keep 
control of our prayer life, and we cannot “pray in the 
Holy Spirit.” That comes out very clearly in that won- 
derful passage that we studied two days ago, our Lord 
Jesus’ wonderful promise to answer prayer found in 
John 14:13, 14: ‘“ And whatsoever ye shall ask in my 
name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in 
the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, that will 
I do.” And then Jesus went on to say, and by saying it 
clearly shows the connection between daily obedience and 
that power in prayer that comes through praying in the 
Holy Spirit, “If ye love me, ye will keep my command- 
ments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you 


184 PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 


another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, 
even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive; 
for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know 
him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you.” 

In other words, the -Lord Jesus says that if we have 
that love to Him that leads us to obey Him in everything, 
day by day, then He prays the Father and the Father 
sends His Holy Spirit to help us in all the emergencies 
of life, especially in our prayer life, and thus whatsoever 
we ask in His name is “ according to His will,” and, there- 
fore, whatsoever we ask that we get. Oh, how we come 
again and again and again in our study of all these won- 
derful promises of God to answer prayer upon the 
thought that there is no effective praying of any kind 
possible on our part unless we are studying the Word of 
God daily to find out the will of God and doting it every 
time we find it. 

(3) In the third place, if we would pray in the Holy 
Spirit we must realize and keep in mind our own utter in- 
ability to pray aright, and our entire dependence upon 
the Holy Spirit, if we are to pray wisely and prevailingly. 
Oh, if there is any time when we need to feel our utter 
dependence upon the Comforter, the ever present Friend 
and Helper and Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, it is when we 
pray. We need to feel deeply our dependence upon Him 
in our living, in our daily warfare with the world, the 
flesh and the Devil; we need to feel our dependence upon 
Him in our service for Christ, realizing that it is “ not 
by might nor by power” (not by any natural gifts or 
abilities of our own), but “ By His Spirit,” that we are 
to accomplish anything for God in this world (Zech. 
4:6); we need to feel our dependence upon Him in our 
Bible study, realizing that He is the only perfect in- 


PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 185 


terpreter of the Word, and that He is ready to interpret 
the Word to us as we study: but above all we need to feel 
our dependence upon Him when we pray. We will do well 
if we always bear in mind the inspired words of Paul as 
found in Romans 8: 26, “ We know not how to pray as 
we ought.” If Paul, that mighty servant of Jesus Christ, 
that inspired Apostle, that wonderful man of prayer, 
knew not how to pray as he ought, certainly we do not. 
But we should also constantly keep in mind the words 
that immediately follow in that same verse, and the fol- 
lowing verse, “ But the Spirit himself maketh intercession 
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and He 
that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of 
the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints 
according to the will of God.”’ Oh, when you go to God 
in prayer, realize that you do not know how to pray as 
you ought, and bring before yourself and keep before 
yourself your utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit in 
every word of prayer. 

(4) In the fourth place, If we would pray im the Holy 
Spirit we must definitely ask God to guide us by His 
Holy Spirit as we pray. Tell God that you do not know 
how to pray as you ought, and ask Him to guide you by 
His Spirit as you pray, and He will. 

(5) In the fifth place, Jf we would pray in the Holy 
Spirit we must count upon God’s answering our prayer 
to send His Holy Spirit to teach us to pray, we must 
count upon His sending His Holy Spirit to teach us to 
pray. We can unhesitatingly count upon God sending 
Him because in the passage just read, Romans 8: 26, 27, 
He has definitely promised to do so. 

(6) In the sixth place, If we would pray in the Holy 
Spirit we must keep getting filled with the Holy Spirit. 


186 PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 


Paul’s inspired exhortation in Ephesians 5: 18, “ Be filled 
with the Spirit,’ or to translate more literally, “ Be get- 
ting filled with the Holy Spirit” (it is a continuous pro- 
cess, aS is indicated by the tense of the Greek verb here 
used), has the most intimate connection with our prayer 
life. If we are filled with the Spirit we will be guided 
by the Spirit in our prayers as well as in everything else. 
A. Spirit filled man will always be a prayerful man, and 
his prayers will be in the Holy Spirit. The way to be 
getting continually filled with the Holy Spirit is indicated 
in what we have just studied under the four preceding 
heads. If we do the things there indicated we will be 
continually getting filled with the Spirit of God. 

(7) Finally, If we would pray in the Spirit we must 
study the Word of God daily and earnestly. The written 
Word of God is the visible instrument through which 
the invisible Spirit of God works; so if you would keep 
filled with that Spirit you must keep full of the Word. 
This comes out very clearly in the passage to which we 
have just referred, Ephesians 5:18, when we read with 
it the verse that immediately follows and then compare 
with Colossians 3:16. Listen to Ephesians 5:18, 19: 
“Be filled with the Spirit; speaking one to another in 
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and mak- 
ing melody with your heart to the Lord.” Now listen 
carefully to Colossians 3:16: “Let the Word of Christ 
dwell in you richly ; in all wisdom teaching and admonish- 
ing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual 
songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.” We 
see here that Paul in Colossians attributes to being filled 
with the Word exactly the same thing that he attributes 
to being filled with the Spirit in Ephesians 5:18, 19, and 
these two Epistles were written at just about the same 


PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 187 


time. We must never lose sight of the tremendously im- 
portant fact that the invisible Spirit of God does His 
work through the visible written Word of God. If we 
keep ourselves in harmony with the mind of God by a 
constant daily study of the Word of God, and by scrupu- 
lous obedience to the Word of God, the instrument 
through which the Holy Spirit constantly works, then the 
Holy Spirit will guide us in our prayers; and only then. 
If we keep ourselves full of the Holy Spirit’s truth con- 
tained in the written Word, the Holy Spirit is far more 
likely to pray through us. From this point of view, then, 
there is deepest significance in our Lord’s own words 
found in John 6:63: “The words that I have spoken 
unto you, THEY are Spirit, and they are life.’ How often 
in our study of the most significant and precious passages 
in the Bible that bear on the subject of how to pray so 
as to obtain from God the things that we ask of Him 
in prayer, we have been brought face to face with the 
great truth that, PREVAILING PRAYER ALWAYS GOES HAND 
IN HAND WITH PERSISTENT AND OBEDIENT STUDY OF THE 
Worp oF Gop. 

To sum up what we have discovered today in our study 
of God’s own Word on the subject of prevailing prayer: 
If we are to pray the prayer that obtains from our Heav- 
enly Father the things that we ask of Him: 

First of all, we must be careful as to what we ask of 
God, and be sure that it is something that we ought to 
have, something that is according to His infinitely wise 
and absolutely holy will, and then when we begin to pray 
for it to keep on praying for it for days and weeks and 
months, and if need be for years, until we get it. We 
“ought always to pray, and not to faint.” We ought to 
pray through. 


188 PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST 


In the second place, we must see to it that we pray 
not out from our own selfish (and 1¢ may be foolish) 
desires, but under the impulse and inspiration and guid- 
ance and control of the Holy Spirit; that we “ pray in 
the Holy Spirit,’ that we let Him pray through us and 
so we pray in the wisdom and earnestness and intensity 
and never wearying persistence and resistless power of 
prayer that He imparts. 

Then our prayer will be the mightiest power on earth; 
for all God has, and all God is, is at the disposal of that 
kind of praying. That kind of praying can accomplish 
anything that God Himself can accomplish. That kind 
of praying partakes of the omnipotence of the God with 
whom that kind of praying puts us in perfect connection. 
As you go from here this morning, go with these words 
burning in your soul, “ Praying im the Holy Ghost.’ I 
long to live in the Holy Ghost; I long to preach and 
witness in the Holy Ghost; I long to study and under- 
stand the Word of God in the Holy Ghost; but above 
all else I long to pray in the Holy Ghost. I long also that 
this church as a body should learn to pray in the Holy 
Ghost, then nothing shall be able to stand against this 
church as it sweeps on and on, from victory to victory 


for God. 


IX 
HINDRANCES TO PRAYER 


“Ve lust, and have not; ye kill, and covet, and can- 
not obiain; ye fight and war; ye have not, because ye 
ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, 
that ye may spend it 1m your pleasures.’—JAMES 4: 2, 3, 


FE have for our study today an exceedingly im- 
W portant subject; that subject is, Hindrances to 
Prayer, or, Why it is that God oftentimes does 
not answer the prayers of His children. Please turn with 
me in your Bibles to James 4:2, 3: Ye lust, and have 
not: ye kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and 
war; ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and re- 
ceive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in 
your pleasures.” 

In the second verse we are told that the reason why 
we do not have the things that we earnestly desire and 
urgently need is because we do not ask for them, because 
we do not pray: we are told that “ Ye have not, because 
ye ask not.” We are told that the secret of our poverty 
and powerlessness is neglect of prayer. We are told that 
we may put forth the most strenuous activity to get things 
that we need—lust, kill, covet, fight and war,—and yet 
fail to get them because we do not pray. In studying 
this verse some days ago we saw very clearly that the 
great secret of the poverty and powerlessness of the aver- 


age Christian, the average minister, and the average 
189 


190 HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 


church, was neglect of prayer. But in the third verse 
we are told that we may pray and still not obtain, because 
“Ye ask amiss,” or, as the Greek word translated “‘ amiss ” 
means, “ Ask evilly, wrongly, or improperly ;” that is to 
say, that there is something that hinders God from an- 
Swering our prayers. 

As I have spoken in these recent days on the mighty 
power of prayer, and of the great and wonderful things 
prayer brings to pass, I do not doubt many of you have 
said to yourselves, ‘‘ Well, my prayers have no such power 
as that. God doesn’t hear and answer my prayers that 
way. Why is that? Is it because what the Bible 
teaches about prayer is not true? Is it because God does 
not answer prayer? Is it because God in olden times 
answered prayer but does not answer it any longer? No, 
not at all. It is for none of those reasons. Why is it 
then? It is because there is something in your own life, 
or in your heart, that makes it impossible for God to 
answer your prayers. It is because there is something in 
your case that hinders prayer. 

Now today we are to study what these hindrances to 
prayer are, what the things are in our hearts, or in our 
lives, that make it impossible for God to answer our pray- 
ers. And I trust that when you see what the things are 
that prevent God answering your prayers, you will give 
them up today and thus get into a place where you can 
not only pray but also obtain. 


Il. A Wronc MotTIvE IN Our PRAYERS 


The first hindrance to prayer you will find right in 
our text. Let me read it again, “ Ye ask, and receive 
not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon 
your lusts.’ The Revised Version reads a little differ- 


HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 191 


ently and more exactly, more correctly, “ Ye ask, and re- 
ceive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in 
your pleasures.’ The first thing, then, that hinders 
prayer, the first thing that makes tt impossible for God 
to answer our prayers, 1s a selfish purpose in our prayers. 
We ask for things we have a right to ask for, things that 
it is the will of God to give us, but we ask for them in 
a wrong way; that is, we ask from a wrong motive, we 
ask for them for our own selfish gratification, that (as 
the Bible puts it) we “ may spend it in our pleasures.” 
What ought to be our motive in our prayers? The 
Bible answers that question very plainly and very ex- 
plicitly in I Cor. 10:31, “ Whether therefore ye eat, or! 
drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” 
Here we are told distinctly that in everything we do, even 
in our eating and drinking, the glory of God should be 
our main object in doing it. If that is true of the sim- 
plest duties of every-day life, it certainly must be true 
of our praying. Our supreme motive im our prayers 
should be that God may be glorified by answering our 
prayers; not that we may get some gratification, but that 
God may get glory to Himself. This thought comes out 
again and again in the Bible. For example, the Lord 
Jesus says in John 14: 13, in that wonderful promise we 
have quoted so often, “ And whatsoever ye shall ask in 
my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified 
in the Son.’ Then in that prayer that our Lord Himself 
taught us, as recorded in the sixth chapter of Matthew, 
the prayer begins with these words, “ Our Father which 
art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name,” clearly showing 
us that the first thing in our prayers should be the hal- 
lowing of God’s own name, the glorifying of God Him- 
self. Then again in John 17:1, that marvelous prayer 


192 HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 


that our Lord Jesus offered the night before His cruci- 
fixion, the real “ Lord’s prayer,” our Lord began with 
these words, “ Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, 
that thy Son also may glorify thee.’ Whatever we ask 
of God in prayer, the first great purpose we have in ask- 
ing anything should be that God may be glorified in giv- 
ing it. But that this is very far from the thought of 
many of us when we pray will be evident from a few 
simple illustrations. 

For example, how many a Christian woman is praying 
for the conversion of her husband. Now that certainly 
is a proper thing to pray for; indeed, I cannot see how 
any truly converted woman can rest, or give God rest day 
or night, until her husband is truly converted and born 
again. But as proper as that prayer is, it often fails be- 
cause the wife who offers it is praying for the conversion 
of her husband from a purely selfish motive. She thinks 
to herself, ‘‘ How much happier our married life would 
be if both husband and I were Christians ; then we would 
sympathize in the deepest interests of life, and we would 
know what real marriage means.” Now that is all true. 
No two persons can know the deepest joys of married 
life, and the real meaning of true marriage, where one 
is saved and the other unsaved; where one is “a 
believer ” and the other is “an unbeliever.” But to pray 
for the conversion of your husband for that reason is pure 
selfishness; a refined selfishness it is true, but neverthe- 
less selfishness. 

Or a woman often prays for the conversion of her 
husband because she cannot bear the thought that her hus- 
band should be lost forever. That, too, is pure selfish- 
ness; refined selfishness, but nevertheless selfishness. 
Why should a wife pray for the conversion of her hus- 


HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 193 


band? First of all, and above all else, in order that God 
may be glorified in the conversion of her husband; be- 
cause she cannot bear it that God should any longer be 
dishonoured by the Christless, Godless, God-disobeying 
life of her husband; in order that God may be glorified 
by her husband obeying God and doing the first thing that 
God demands of every man, believe on His Son the Lord 
Jesus Christ; in order that God may be glorified in her 
husband ceasing his rebellion against God and his wicked 
life, and giving himself up to Jesus Christ and His ser- 
vice; that should be the supreme motive for which a 
Christian woman prays for the conversion of her hus- 
band. And when a woman gets to praying for the con- 
version of her husband along that line, it will not be long 
before she sees him converted. 

But how far that is from the thought of many a woman 
who is praying most earnestly, and even agonizingly, for 
the conversion of her husband, is very evident from the 
way in which she speaks to you about her husband. They 
will come to you and say, “I wish you would pray for 
my husband that he may be converted; he is such a good 
man. It is true he is not a Christian, but he is such a 
good man.” Could any woman who had any proper con- 
ception of the infinite majesty and glory of God, or the 
Divine majesty and dignity of His Son, Jesus Christ, call 
aman, no matter how kind he might be to her and just 
to others, “a good man” when he is disobeying God in 
the very first thing that God demands of him, that he 
believe in His Son Jesus Christ, and when he is tramp- 
ling under foot the glorious Son of God; calling such a 
man “a good man” just because he is her husband? No, 
no, no, he may be your husband, he may be kind and gen- 
erous and excellent in many ways, but if he is rejecting 


194 HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 


Jesus Christ he is a wicked, stubborn, rebel against God. 
You may love him, you ought to love him, but do not dis- 
honour God by calling him good; but cry to God for His 
conversion not merely that you may have the joy of see- 
ing him converted, and_not merely that he may have the 
joy of being converted and be saved from an eternal hell, 
but in order that God may be glorified in his conversion. 
Pray that way and it will not be long before you see your 
husband converted. 

Take another illustration. Many a minister, and many 
a professing Christian, is praying for a true revival. 
That certainly is a proper prayer; that certainly is a 
prayer that is according to God’s will; it is a Bible prayer, 
for we read in Psalm 85:6 this prayer: “ Wilt thou not 
revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?” 
Yes, that is a perfectly proper prayer; indeed, I cannot 
see how anyone who is a real Christian can keep from 
praying that prayer with intense earnestness in days such 
as you and I are living in. But one may, and men often 
do, offer that prayer from an entirely selfish motive. 
Many a minister is praying for a revival in his church 
from a purely selfish motive. I received a letter once 
from a minister, the pastor of a church, beseeching me 
to come and hold a meeting with him, and he wrote, “I 
am losing my hold upon my people, and if I do not have 
a revival I will have to give up my church.” In other 
words, he wanted a revival merely that he might hold his 
living. That perhaps was an extreme case, but there are 
many that are essentially the same; both ministers and 
members praying for a revival in order that there may 
be an increase of members in the church; in order that 
the church may have a larger prestige in the community; 
in the hope sometimes that some of the rich people in the 


HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 195 


community may be converted and so the burden of sup- 
porting the church will not be so heavy upon them, or 
for many other purely selfish reasons. 

Why ought we to pray for a revival? In order that 
God may be glorified by a revival; because we can no 
longer bear it that God should be dishonoured by the low 
level of living among professed Christians, and by the in- 
crease of wickedness and Godlessness in the world; be- 
cause we can no longer endure it that God should be dis- 
honoured by the loud spoken infidelity so common among 
men today, and by the even more dangerous infidelity of 
many of our church members, and even of some alleged 
preachers of the Gospel today; in order that God may be 
glorified by the church being brought up to that level 
of Christian life that will glorify God, and by the con- 
version of sinners, and by stopping the mouths of unbe- 
lievers, and by delivering some of our church members 
and our preachers from dangerous heresy and unbelief to 
a God-honouring faith in God’s Word and the truth con- 
tained in His Word. In order that God may be glorified ; 
that is why we should pray for a revival. But how far 
that is from the thought of many that are praying fora 
revival today. . 

Take still another illustration. There are a great many 
ministers and members in our churches today who are 
praying that they may be baptized with the Holy Spirit. 
That is certainly a proper prayer, a prayer that pleases 
God, a prayer that has abundant warrant in the Word of 
God, for the Lord Jesus distinctly tells us in Luke 11: 13, 
“Tf ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto 
your children; how much more shall your heavenly 
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” 
And we read in the record in the Acts of the Apostles, 


196 HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 


in Acts 4:31, “ And when they had prayed, the place 
was shaken where they were assembled together ; and they 
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the 
word of God with boldness.” Yes, indeed, it is a proper 
prayer; and I cannot understand how any Christian can 
rest until he is baptized with the Holy Spirit, and knows 
it. But there is much prayer for the baptism with the 
Holy Spirit, or the filling with the Holy Spirit, which is 
purely selfish. Men and women pray for the Baptism 
with the Holy Spirit because they think they will be hap- 
pier if they are thus baptized. They know men and women 
who have been baptized with the Holy Spirit, and sucha 
new and radiant and glorious joy has come into their lives 
that they want it too. Or, it may be that they pray for 
the baptism with the Holy Spirit because they know some- 
one else who has been baptized with the Holy Spirit anda 
new power has come into their service, and they want the 
baptism with the Holy Spirit in order that they, too, may 
be more prominent and successful in their work for God. 
Now all this is pure selfishness, and one can pray for the 
baptism with the Holy Spirit in that way until the crack 
of doom and never obtain it. 

Why should we desire the baptism with the Holy Spirit? 
Or why, if we have been baptized with the Holy Spirit, 
should we pray for a new filling with the Holy Spirit? 
In order that God may be glorified in our being baptized 
or filled with the Holy Spirit. Because we can no longer 
endure it that God should be any longer dishonoured by 
the low level of our living, and by the ineffectiveness of 
our service; in order that God may be glorified by our 
being empowered to lead such lives as honour Him; in 
order that God may be glorified by our having the power 
in His service that we ought to have; in order that God 


HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 197 


may be glorified by our being baptized or filled with the 
Holy Spirit—that is why we should pray for it. And 
when we get to praying for the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit along that line it will not be many hours before we 
are thus baptized with the Spirit of God. But how far 
this is from the thought of many that are praying for the 
baptism with the Holy Spirit is very evident from the way 
they talk, and the way they pray. 

A friend of mine was holding a meeting in a town in 
New York State, near the Hudson River. At one of his 
morning services he spoke upon the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit. As he went away from the meeting one of the 
ministers of the town walked with him. They had not 
gone far when this minister said, “I greatly enjoyed your 
address this morning. That baptism of the Holy Spirit 
that you were talking about is just what I need, and that 
is what I am going to have.” Now that sounded very 
encouraging, but the minister went on to say, “I have a 
salary of twelve hundred dollars a year. I believe if I 
had that baptism of the Holy Spirit that you have been 
talking about I could get fifteen hundred dollars a year.” 
Now you smile at that, but it is really shocking, indeed 
appalling. It may be an extreme case, but it illustrates a 
tendency of thought that is exceedingly common among 
professed Christians and among ministers today who are 
praying that they may be baptized with the Holy Spirit, 
or that they may be filled with the Holy Spirit. Oh, 
brethren, when you and I come to see this thing in the 
Bible light, come to see how God-dishonouring our lives 
are, and come to long for the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit, or filling with the Holy Spirit, not that we may be 
blessed, but that God may be glorified, it will not be long 
before we are baptized with the Holy Ghost. 


198 HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 


II. Sin IN THE HEART or LIFE 


You will find a second hindrance to prayer set forth 
in Isaiah '59:1,°2> *° Behold, the Mord’s hand: 1s" not 
shortened, that it cannot save: neither his ear heavy, that 
it cannot hear: But your miquities have separated between 
you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from 
you, that he will not hear.” Here we are distinctly told 
that the reason in many instances why God does not an- 
swer prayer is, because our iniquities and our sins have 
separated between us and our God, and hid His face from 
us, that He will not hear. The people of Isaiah’s time 
were saying, “ God does not answer prayer any longer. 
He may have answered it in the days of Moses; He may 
have answered in the days of Elijah, but He does not 
answer any longer. Either His ear is heavy, that it can- 
not hear; or His hand is shortened that it cannot save.” 
“No, no,” says Isaiah, “the Lord’s hand is not short- 
ened, that it cannot save: neither his ear heavy, that it 
cannot hear.” The trouble is not with God, the trouble 
is with you. ‘‘ Your iniquitics have separated between 
you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from 
you, that He will not hear.” Sin in our hearts or lives 
makes it impossible for God to answer our prayer, even 
though the thing for which we are praying is entirely 
according to His will. 

If you are praying for something and you do not get 
it, do not conclude that God does not answer prayer ; do 
not conclude that God does not answer prayer today just 
as He did in the olden times; do not conclude that this 
thing that you are asking for is not according to the will 
of God. Go alone with God, ask Him to search your 
heart, and ask Him to show you whether there is any- 


HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 199 


thing in your past life that you have done that was wrong 
that you have not set straight, any past sin that you have 
not judged, or whether there is anything in your life today 
that is displeasing to Him. And then wait silently before 
Him and give Him an opportunity to show you. And if 
He shows you anything, confess it to Him as sin and 
give it up. If you will not do this, then there is not the 
least use in your trying to pray, nothing will come of 
your prayers; and it will not be because God does not 
hear prayer today just as much as in former days; it is 
not because the arm of the Lord is shortened that it can- 
not save, nor His ear heavy, that He cannot hear. God’s 
ear is just as sharp to hear the voice of true prayer as 
it ever was, and His hand is just as long and just as strong 
to save as it ever was, “ But your iniquities have separated 
between you and your God, and your sins have hid His 
face from you, that He will not hear.” Right at this 
point we find the full explanation of why it is that many 
of our prayers are not heard and bring nothing to pass. 

I had a very striking illustration of this in my own life 
some years ago, an experience which I have never for- 
gotten. I had started out to carry on the work that God 
had given me to do in Minneapolis without any pledges 
for its support, and without taking up any contributions 
or collections of any kind, but simply looking to God by 
prayer to furnish the money for the work. I do not be- 
lieve that God asks every man to do that, or even that He 
asks the same man to always do it, but I was entirely 
sure that God had told me to do it at that time, and I 
had stepped out in simple faith in God. I had had a 
strong society back of me who paid me a generous salary, 
paid for the rent of the various halls, paid for the mis- 
sionaries J] employed, paid for all the work that was done ; 


200 HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 


but I saw that the time had come when I should step 
out in simple faith in Him, and so I asked the society 
that had been back of me if they would turn the work 
over to me to carry it on in that way. I told them what 
they knew to be true, that there was a great deal of other 
work they ought to be doing and they needed their money 
for that other work. Somewhat reluctantly but very 
kindly they acceded to my request, and in a single day 
I cut off every source of income I had in the world. 
Irom that time every penny that came for the support 
of myself and wife and four children that I had at that 
time, every penny that came for rent of halls, lights, fuel, 
and everything else, every penny that came for my mis- 
sionaries, came in answer to prayer. We took up no col- 
lections, had no subscriptions, no one was ever asked for 
money, no one but God. A great many people were © 
watching the experiment, many of them very sympatheti- 
cally, others possibly quite critically, though I must say 
that for an experiment that must have seemed to an out- 
sider so crazy it was received, as far as I know, with kind- 
ness everywhere. 

And the money came day after day, and week after 
week, and month after month; not from the old sources, 
almost entirely from new sources. Sometimes it came in 
small amounts; sometimes in large amounts; sometimes 
it came in ways most ordinary, and sometimes in ways 
apparently very extraordinary. But it came. But one 
day it did not come, that is to say, I had obligations that 
I must meet very soon and no money to meet them. 
When I went home that night, before I retired, I took 
the matter to God in prayer and asked Him to send me 
that money, not only that the work might go on, but that 
His name might not be dishonoured by an apparent 


HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 201 


failure on His part to answer prayer. But I went to bed, 
I am afraid, without very much clear faith that the money 
would come. I was all alone in the house. In the middle 
of the night I was awakened by great pain and physical 
distress ; I was very sick. I looked up to God and cried 
to Him that He would touch my body and heal me, and 
that He would send that money ; but there was no answer. 
Again I cried to God to touch my body and send that 
money. Still no answer.. It seemed as though the 
heavens above my head were brass; it seemed as if there 
were no God there, and the Devil came and taunted me. 
He said, as he said to the Psalmist of old, “ Where is thy 
God? There is no God, or if there is a God he does not 
answer prayer in the way which you have been teaching 
people that He does.” 

I was in great distress of soul as well as body; it 
seemed as if the very billows of hell were going over my 
head; it seemed as if the cherished faith of years was 
going by the board. Have you ever been there? Have 
you ever been where it seemed the faith which you cher- 
ished for years, and that you thought was so well founded, 
was going by the board? Well, that was where I was. 
And again I cried to God, “ Touch my body, heal me, 
and send that money.” No answer. Then I looked up 
and I said, “ Heavenly Father, if there is anything wrong 
in my life anywhere, show me what it 1s and | will give 
it up.” Instantly God brought up something that had 
often come up before to trouble me, but every time it 
would come up I would say, “ That’s all right. I know 
it’s all right. There is nothing wrong about that,” but all 
the time in the bottom of my heart I knew it was wrong. 
Have you anything of that kind in your heart and life, 


202 HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 


something that always comes up when you get nearest to 
God to trouble you, and ‘yet which you try to persuade 
yourself is right and say to yourself, “'That’s all right. 
I know it’s all right. I am sure it is all right, it is all 
nonsense to think that that is wrong?” Well, so it was 
with me. It came up again very vividly and I looked up 
and said, “ Oh, God, if this thing is wrong in Thy sight, 
I will give it up now.” No answer. In the depths of 
my heart I knew it was wrong, but I said, ‘“ Oh, God, if 
it is wrong in Thy sight I will give it up.” There was 
no answer. Then I cried, “ Oh, God, this thing is wrong; 
itis sin. I give it up now.” Instantly God touched my 
body, immediately I was as well as I am this moment, and 
the money came and the work went on. 

When? When I judged my sin. Oh, men and women, 
if you are praying, praying, praying for something and 
not getting it, I beg of you, do not fancy that God does 
not answer prayer; do not decide that the thing that you 
are praying for is not according to God’s will! God may 
be dealing with you, may be trying to bring you to your 
senses and to Himself. Go alone with God and honestly 
ask Him to show you if there is anything wrong in your 
heart or life, anything that is displeasing to Him; and 
when He shows you, set it straight at once and you will 
find an open Heaven, and a God who answers prayer, a 
God whose ear is not only quick to hear prayer in general, 
and whose hand is not only strong to save in general, but 
a God whose ear is quick to hear your prayer, and whose 
hand is long and strong to give immediate deliverance 
to you. Oh, how many things there are that we greatly 
need and that we might have at once if we would only 
judge and put away our sin! 


HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 203 


III. Ipots In THE HEART 


Now let us turn to Ezekiel 14: 1-3, and we will find 
that God tells us very plainly of a third hindrance to 
prayer. Let me read, “ Then came certain of the elders 
of Israel unto me, and sat before me. And the word 
of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, these men 
have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stum- 
bling-block of their iniquity before their face: should I be 
inquired of at all by them?” The elders of Israel had 
come to Ezekiel to pray for them; it was a day of great 
seeming triumph for Ezekiel. For a long time, for days 
and months, perhaps for years, Ezekiel had been longing 
for the time when the elders of Israel would come to their 
senses and come to him and ask him to pray for them, 
and the time seemed to have come, and with a glad heart 
Ezekiel was about to go to God in prayer for them, and 
for the people. But God suddenly stops him, He says, 
“ Ezekiel, do not pray for these men, they have set up 
their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling-block of 
their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of 
at all by them?” Here we are clearly told that idols in 
the heart make it wmpossible for God to attend to our 
prayers. 

In Japan and China and India and other non-Christian 
lands they set up their idols in their temples and in their 
homes, but the Jews, and we Christians also today, set 
up our idols in our hearts. There are no hideous images 
on our mantles or in other places in our homes, but there 
are idols in the hearts of many of us which make it just 
as impossible for God to answer our prayers as if we had 
the most hideous images in our home or in our churches. 

What is an idol? An idol is anything that a man puts 


204 HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 


before God. Many a man makes an idol of his wife. No 
man can love his wife too much; the more truly a man 
loves God, the more deeply and tenderly he will love his 
wife, but a man can put his wife in the wrong place, he 
can put his wife before God. Many a man, many a pro- 
fessing Christian man, many an active Christian man, 
does things to please his wife that he knows do not please 
God. He is making an idol of his wife; he is not on pray- 
ing ground. Many a wife also makes an idol of her hus- 
band. No wife can love her husband too much, the more 
truly a woman loves God, the more deeply and tenderly 
she will love her husband, but a wife can put her husband 
in the wrong place, she can put her husband before God, 
and she can do things to please her husband that she 
knows do not please God. How many a wife is doing it 
in these days; how many a wife is doing things in the 
matter of dress, in the matter of social engagements, in 
the matter of amusements, and in other matters, to please 
her husband that she knows full well in her heart do not 
please God. She is making an idol of her husband, and 
she is not on praying ground. 

We can make idols of our children. We cannot love 
our children too much; the more truly we love God, the 
more deeply and tenderly we will love our children, but 
we can put our children in the wrong place; we can put 
our children before God, and we can do things to please 
our children that we know do not please God. How many 
Christians are doing that very thing today. How many 
Christian fathers and mothers are allowing forms of 
amusement and social entertainment, and other things in 
their homes, that they know are displeasing to God, but 
their children want them. They are making idols of their 
children, and they are not on praying ground. How many 


a 


HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 205 


a professedly Christian father and mother have a beauti- 
ful daughter for whom they are seeking a brilliant match 
with a man of wealth or culture or social position, and 
the man whom they are cultivating as a prospective hus- 
band for their Christian daughter is not a Christian man. 
He is gifted, he is talented, he is rich perhaps, very likely 
he has a delightful personality, but he is not a Christian ; 
and, in spite of the fact that they know perfectly well that 
God commands in the most unmistakable terms in IT Cor. 
6:14, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbe- 
lievers,’ (and by unbelievers here is not meant infidels, 
but unbelievers in the New Testament sense as including 
all who have not believed on Jesus Christ with a living 
faith, believed on Him with the faith that receives Him as 
Saviour and Lord), knowing this, in deliberate violation 
of God’s written law, they are seeking this brilliant match 
for their daughter. They have made an idol of their 
daughter and her future prosperity and prospects. They 
are not on praying ground. 

Many make idols of social position. How many pro- 
fessedly Christian men and women there are, quite earnest 
men and women in some respects oftentimes, who are 
doing things to secure or maintain a social position that 
they desire to occupy, which they know are not right in 
the sight of God. One time Major Whittle, the evangel- 
ist, was holding meetings in the City of Washington, D. C. 
A very old friend of his was at the time occupying a very 
high position in the United States Government. This 
friend invited Major Whittle to his beautiful Washington 
home. One day he was showing Major Whittle about the 
home, and as they went from room to room they came 
into a very large and beautifully decorated room. Major 
Whittle glanced around it and then said to the man, 


206 HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 


“What is this room for?” The man evaded an answer, 
but Major Whittle was not a man easily put off, and he 
repeated his question, “ What is this room for?” The 
man replied, “ Well, Major, if you must know, it is a ball- 
room.” Major Whittle looked at him sternly and said, 
“Do you mean to tell me that you have fallen so low in 
the moral scale that you have a ballroom in your home?” 
The man dropped his head and said, “ Major, I did not 
think I would ever come to this, but here we are in Wash- 
ington society and my wife and daughter told me that 
we must do this to maintain our position in society, and 
I have yielded to them.” He and his wife had made an 
idol of social position, and right dearly did he pay for it 
before he got through, and right dearly did she pay 
for it. 

The temptation to make an idol of our reputation is 
peculiarly real with ministers of the gospel. We minis- 
ters of the gospel know perfectly well that in this day in 
which we are living, which puts such an extraordinary 
and absurd value upon what it calls advanced thought and 
original thinking, that if a minister is true to the old God- 
given doctrines, no matter how scholarly and how brilliant 
he may be, he will be by a great many persons rated as not 
scholarly and not up-to-date. And yet, on the other hand, 
no matter how little a scholar a man may be, or how poor 
a thinker he may be, if he throws out views that are a 
little off colour, or a great deal off colour, he will at once 
be rated as “a great thinker,’ as fully abreast of the 
times, a great scholar. So many a minister who really is 
perfectly sound at heart in his own views, will throw out 
a little suggestion now and then in order to make people 
realize that he is abreast of the times, that will undermine 
the faith of the young men and young women in his con- 


HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 207 


gregation. He has made an idol of his reputation, and 
lost his power in prayer. Or again, we ministers often 
realize that if we use a very ornate rhetoric, and theatrical 
modes of address, we will not win so many souls to Christ 
as we will by preaching the simple, straight gospel, but 
we will get a far greater reputation as pulpit orators ; and 
many a man in the pulpit today has sacrificed his real 
power for God by cultivating an elaborate and highly 
polished rhetoric and oratorical methods of delivery that 
awakened the admiration and applause of shallow men and 
women, but it robbed him of real power for God. Such 
men have made an idol of their reputation and are not on 
praying ground. 

Oh, men and women, if you covet power in prayer, go 
alone with God and let Him search you; ask Him to show 
you if there is any idol in your heart, and when He shows 
it to you, do away with it today. 


“The dearest idol I have known, 
Where ere that idol be, 
O God, help me to tear it from its throne 
And worship only Thee.” 


IV. AN UNFORGIVING SPIRIT 


Our Lord Jesus Christ sets forth a fourth hindrance 
to prayer in Mark 11:25, “ And when ye stand praying, 
forgive, if ye have aught against any; that your Father 
also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”’ 
Here we are distinctly told that an unforgiving spirit 
makes it impossible for God to answer our prayers. All 
of God’s answering our prayers is upon the basis of God’s 
dealing with us as forgiven sinners, and God cannot deal 
with us as forgiven sinners while we are not forgiving 
those who have wronged us. I believe we touch here 


208 HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 


upon one of the most frequent causes of unanswered 
prayer, bitterness in our heart toward someone who has 
wronged us, or whom we fancy has wronged us. How 
many a wife is praying, praying earnestly, praying with an 
almost breaking heart, for the conversion of her husband, 
but all the time she has bitterness in her heart toward 
someone who has wronged her, or whom she fancies has 
wronged her. Woman, are you willing that your husband 
should be eternally lost for the poor miserable gratifica- 
tion of hating somebody who has wronged you, or whom 
you fancy has wronged you? How many a mother is 
praying, praying so earnestly, for the conversion of her 
son, and all the time that she is praying for the conver- 
sion of her son she has bitter hatred in her heart toward 
some other woman who has wronged her, or whom she 
fancies has wronged her. Woman, are you willing that 
your son should go down to an eternal hell for the poor, 
miserable gratification of hating somebody? If we wish 
power in prayer, let us search our hearts today, and let 
us look to God to search our hearts and bring to light 
any enmity that there may be in our heart toward any- 
body, and if we find that there is such enmity, no matter 
how much that person may have wronged us, let us give 
it up and let the Spirit of God come into our hearts, that 
Spirit who makes us love everybody, even our cruelest 
enemy. 

When Mr. Alexander and I were holding meetings in 
Launceston, Tasmania, we had a day of fasting and 
prayer. There was an active Christian man in the com- 
munity who had a son-in-law, and he and his wife had 
had some trouble with that son-in-law and they had for- 
bidden his ever coming under their roof again. At the 
morning service I spoke, as I always did on the day of 


HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 209 


fasting and prayer, on hindrances to prayer. When [f 
got to this part of my sermon the man was deeply con- 
victed of that sin. As he went away from the meeting 
to his home at the noon hour he got to thinking of it, and 
he wondered to himself whether he ought to write his 
son-in-law. Just as he was reaching home he was won- 
dering whether he ought to speak to his wife about this 
matter. He went up the steps, reached out his hand to 
open the door, still thinking about this. Unknown to him, 
his wife had been at the meeting also, and as he reached 
out to open the door his wife opened the door from the 
other side and instantly said, “ Telegraph him to come at 
once.” And they did. And power in prayer came into 
the life of that man and woman. And there are some of 
you here this morning who have had no power in prayer 
for days, or weeks, or months, or it may be for years, 
simply because of some bitterness that you have in your 
heart toward someone. There is no use whatever of your 
praying until you let God cast that bitterness out. Listen 
again to the words of Jesus Christ Himself, “ When ye 
stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any; that 
your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your 
trespasses.” 


V. STINGINESS IN Our GivING 


Now turn with me to a deeply significant passage of 
Scripture that throws great light on the subject that we 
are studying, Proverbs 21:13, “ Whoso stoppeth his ears 
at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall 
not be heard.” Here God distinctly tells us that if we 
stop our ears to the cry of the poor when they cry unto 
us for help, He will stop His ears to us when we cry 
unto Him for help. The one who is small, and mean, 


210 HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 


and stingy, and niggardly in his giving, cannot be a 
mighty man of prayer. This thought runs all through the 
Bible, we are told it over and over and over again. Read, 
for example, Luke 6:38, “ Give, and it shall be given 
unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken to- 
gether, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. 
For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall 
be measured to you again.” 

Here God distinctly tells us that He measures out His 
benefactions to us in exactly the same measure that we 
measure out our benefactions to others. And some of 
us use such teenty, tinty pint cup measures in our giving 
that God can only give us a pint cup blessing. God puts 
His gifts into our lives in answer to our prayers in 
through the same door that we give out our benevolences 
to others, and some of us open the door of our benevo- 
lences such a wee crack that God can only get in the wee- 
est blessing to us. 

Turn to another passage, one of the most familiar 
promises in the Bible, a promise that one hears in almost 
every prayer-meeting that they attend, and yet a promise 
that is constantly quoted without any reference whatever 
to the connection and to the condition of fulfillment im- 
plied in the connection. Phil 4:19, “ But my God shall 
supply all your need according to his riches in glory by 
Christ Jesus.” What a wonderful promise it is, but the 
English Revised Version makes it even more wonderful. 
“ And my God shall fulfil,” turn that word ‘ fulfil’ around 
and you get exactly what the Greek word signifies ‘ fill 
full’: let me read it that way, “ And my God shall fill 
full every need of yours according to His riches in glory 
in Christ Jesus.” One of the elders of our church in 
Chicago got up one night in our prayer-meeting and said, 


HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 211 


“T thank God, brethren, that there is one promise in the 
Bible without any condition”; and then he quoted this 
passage, “ But my God shall supply all your need accord- 
ing to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” I stopped 
him; I said, “ Hold on a minute, Brother H , there 
is a condition; it is exceedingly plain in the context. 
Please begin back at the fifteenth verse. Listen, ‘ Now 
ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the 
gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church com- 
municated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but 
ye only. For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again 
unto my necessity.’”” And then he goes on to say how 
they had just sent to him again, and then it is that he 
says, ‘“ But my God shall fulfil every need of yours (that 
is, ““ every need of ” a generously giving church) accord- 
ing to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” There is ab- 
solutely nothing here that a stingy Christian has a right 
to claim. We are plainly told that the promise is made 
to large givers, and to them alone. Of course the gift 
may not be large in itself, but large in comparison with: 
what a person has. 

Listen to another familiar promise that sounds very 
much like this one that we have just noted, II Cor. 9:8, 
“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; 
that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may 
abound to every good work.” Just look at the “all’s” 
and the “every’s” and the “abound’s.” Let me quote 
it again, “ And God is able to make all grace abound 
toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all 
things, may abound to every good work.’ Wonderful 
promise, isn’t it. But read it in its connection, begin back 
two verses, II Cor. 9:6, 7, “ He which soweth sparingly 
[the context shows that Paul is speaking about the sow- 





212 HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 


ing of gifts, and sowing sparingly means giving sparingly, 
smally] shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth 
bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man ac- 
cording as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not 
grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful 
giver (the Greek word here translated “ cheerful” is 
“hilaros,” from which we get our word “ hilarious’), 
God loveth a hilarious giver. And God is able to make 
all grace abound toward you (that is, toward the hilarious 
giver) ; that ye (that is, that ye hilarious givers), always 
having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every 
good work.” 

There is nothing here for the stingy Christian, only 
for the Christian who is a hilarious giver. Are you a 
hilarious giver? Do you love to find opportunities to 
give? When you see the collection basket coming, do 
you say to yourself, “1am so glad I have another oppor- 
tunity to give?”’ Or do you say, “I wish they wouldn’t 
everlastingly take up collections?”? Are you of those 
who, when you see the collection basket coming, say, “ Oh, 
why will they take up a collection so often?”’ And then 
do you begin to reason with yourself as to how much you 
ought to give, and first take out it may be a dollar, and 
look around and say, “ Well, I guess this is my share. 
If everybody here gives a dollar they will have plenty; 
there are over two thousand people present, and if every- 
one gives a dollar there will be two thousand dollars.” 
And then do you hesitate and say, ‘‘ Well, they don’t need 
two thousand dollars.” And then you take out fifty cents 
and say, “ Oh, I think that is all I ought to give. If every- 
body gives fifty cents there will be a thousand dollars.” 
And then you hesitate and say, “ Well, I do not believe 
they need a thousand dollars.” And then you put the 


a 


HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 213 


half-dollar back in your pocket and take out a quarter and 
say, “ Well, that’s enough. If everybody gives a quarter 
they will have five hundred dollars; that certainly is 
enough.” And then you hesitate again and put back the 
quarter and take out a ten-cent piece, and say, “ Oh, I 
think ten cents is my share. If everyone gives ten cents 
that is two hundred dollars, that certainly is enough.” 
But the collection basket is now getting nearer, and you 
put back the ten-cent piece and take out a nickel and say, 
“T think that is my share. If everybody gives a nickel 
they will have a hundred dollars. That certainly is 
enough.” But wait, the basket is nearer still, and you 
put back the nickel and take out a penny, and you pinch 
that until poor President Lincoln’s figure on the penny 
squeals. Come, now, honour bright, do you do that? Or 
do you throw in the whole pocketbook and say, “I wish 
I could give even more’? Oh, are you a hilarious giver? 
If you are not, you cannot be a mighty prayer. 

Take one other passage of Scripture, that wonderful 
promise that we studied four days ago, I John 3:22, 
““ And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we 
keep his commandments, and do those things that are 
pleasing in his sight.” What a wonderful promise that 
is. John here tells us plainly that whatsoever he asked 
of God he got. But why? Read the context, begin back 
at the sixteenth verse, “ Hereby perceive we the love of 
God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought 
to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath 
this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and 
shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how 
dwelleth the love of God in him?” I can tell you how, 
nohow. But let me read on, “ My little children, let us 
not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in 


214 HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 


truth.” That is to say, let us not love in mere profession 
of love, but in reality, by actually doing. For example, 
it is a cold winter night, there are only a few out to prayer- 
meeting, but an enthusiastic brother enters and in a little 
while he gets up in the prayer-meeting and says, “ Breth- 
ren, I am so glad to be here tonight. I do so enjoy the 
society of Christian people. I know that I have passed 
from death unto life, because I love the brethren. (1 John 
3:14.) Oh, how I love the brethren, how glad I am to 
be here tonight. I’d rather be here than to go to the 


theatre or the circus or any entertainment. I do not see ~ 


how anybody that calls himself a Christian can go to 
places like that. There is no place I enjoy as I enjoy the 
prayer-meeting; no fellowship that I love as I love the 
fellowship of Christians. I know I have passed from 
death unto life, because I love the brethren.” But im- 
mediately the meeting is over you go to this enthusiastic, 
glowing brother, and you say to him, “ Brother Smith, I 
was so glad to hear your testimony tonight, it just warmed 
my heart. But I want to speak to you about a little mat- 
ter. You know Sister Johnson, that she has been unfor- 
tunate and her husband died here a few months ago. He 
left her no insurance, and she is having a hard time to 
pay her rent and keep her family together. She lives in 
that little house of yours over on the other side of town, 
and she is afraid she cannot pay the rent this time. Can’t 
you let her off on the rent?’”’ And instantly this glowing 
Christian becomes cold, and he says, “ Well, of course I 
sympathize with the poor sister, and I wish I could help 
her, but business is business, and if she cannot pay the 
rent I suppose she will have to get out.” How dwelleth 
the love of God in that man? I will tell you how, nohow. 


HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 215 


c 


He simply loves “in word” and “in tongue,” not “in 
deed and in truth.” 

Or take another illustration. Another brother comes 
into a prayer-meeting where you are present, and he gets 
up with the same glowing testimony, tells how glad he is 
to be there, how he loves the brethren, how he loves the 
society of Christian people, how he knows that he has 
passed from death unto life, because he loves the brethren. 
And when the meeting is over you go to him and say, 
“ Brother Brown, I so enjoyed your testimony tonight, 
it did me good, it warmed my heart. But, Brother Brown, 
you know Sister Jones, you know what a hard time she is 
having of it. You remember how her husband coming 
home from work a few weeks ago was run over by a train 
and killed, and how he had no insurance and no money 
laid up, and she has been unable to get any damages from 
the railroad. It is going to be a cold winter, and they 
have no coal over in Sister Jones’ house, and we are get- 
ting together a little money to stock the house with coal 
or wood, and to put in a barrel of flour, and potatoes, and 
other provisions, so that she can keep her family together 
and not separate, and not suffer.” And suddenly this 
brother also becomes cold and says, “ Well, I am sorry 
for her, and I’d like to help her, but charity must begin 
at home. And I’ve got to pay my income tax, and you 
know how heavy it is. (It does not seem to occur to the 
brother that unless he had plenty of money he would not 
have a very heavy income tax.) And though I would like 
to help, I cannot.” 

“How dwelleth the love of God in him?” Nohow. 
He loves merely “in word” and “in tongue,” and not 
“in deed and in truth.” But let me read on, “ And 
hereby [that is, by loving not merely in word and in 


216 HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 


tongue, but by our actual giving, “in deed and in truth ”| 
we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our 
hearts before Him [that is, before God]. For if our 
heart condemn us, [that is, condemn us in the matter of 
our stingy giving], God is greater than our heart, and 
knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not 
[that is, does not condemn us because of our stingy giv- 
ing|, then have we confidence toward God. And what- 
soever we ask [that is, we whose hearts do not con- 
demn us because of our stinginess, we who are giving 
generously as we ought, we who love “in deed and in 
truth’’|, whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because 
we keep his commandments, and do those things that are 
pleasing in his sight.” You may go right straight through 
your Bible and you will find that every great promise on 
God’s part to give us in answer to our prayer, is condi- 
tioned upon our generous giving to others who need our 
help. 

Right here we discover the secret of why it 1s that 
individual believers, and the Church of Christ as a whole, 
today have so little power in prayer. It is because of 
our downright stinginess in our giving. Great men of 
prayer are all great givers, that is, great givers according 
to their ability. George Mueller, of Bristol, England, was, 
as far as we know, one of the very greatest men of prayer 
of the last generation. He obtained the English equivalent 
of more than seven million, two hundred thousand dollars 
by prayer. For about sixty years he carried on a most 
marvelous work in supporting and training the orphans 
of England, oftentimes having two thousand or more 
orphans under his roofs at one time to be fed three meals 
a day, and yet every penny that came for the support of 
the orphans, and for the support of the other work for 


i 


HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 217 


which he felt responsible, came in answer to prayer. No 
appeal was ever made to anybody, no collections or offer- 
ings ever taken, and yet the money never failed. Some- 
times it seemed up to almost the last moment as if it would 
fail, but it always came. He would ask God for a hun- 
dred pounds sterling, and it would come and he would 
pass it on. He would ask for sixty thousand pounds ster- 
ling, and it would come and he would pass it on. In all, 
as we have already stated, he asked for over seven million, 
two hundred thousand dollars, and it came and he passed 
it on. 

And that was the reason why it kept coming, because 
he kept passing it on, none of it stuck to his fingers. And 
when he came to die at the advanced age of ninety-two 
or ninety-three years, he had just enough left to pay his 
funeral expenses. We ask and we get and we keep, and 
so God ceases to give. We stop our ears at the cry of 
the poor, the poor in our own land and the poor in other 
lands, the spiritually poor even more than the poor in 
purse, and so God stops His ears to our cry, just as He 
told us twenty-nine hundred years ago He would do. 

The evangelical churches of America do not average 
two cents a week per member for foreign missions, and 
yet we wonder why God does not hear our prayers. 
Many a professedly Christian woman spends every year 
of her life more on the single article of kid gloves than 
she does upon foreign missions, and yet she wonders why 
God does not hear her prayers. I am not saying that 
women should not wear gloves, but I am saying that a 
Christian woman should certainly give more for the work 
of sending the Gospel to the perishing heathen than she 
does on a matter of personal adornment like that. Many 
a professing Christian man spends more every year of 


218 HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 


his life on the unnecessary, not to say filthy and unwhole- 
some, tobacco, than he does upon sending the Gospel to 
the perishing in China, and India, and Africa, and else- 
where, and yet he wonders why God does not answer his 
prayers. There is many and many a man in our churches 
today who, if you ask him for thirty-six dollars and fifty 
cents a year for foreign missions, would almost faint 
away, and yet he spends more than ten cents a day on 
cigars, and ten cents a day would make thirty-six dollars 
and fifty cents ina year. And many of them spend many 
times ten cents a day on cigars or cigarettes, or tobacco 
in some form, and never dream of giving thirty-six dol- 
lars and fifty cents a year to foreign missions, and yet 
they wonder why God does not answer their prayers. 
There is no wonder about it, it is your niggardliness, your 
downright meanness in your giving. 

A young lady came into my office once in Minneapolis. 
I was interested in the newsboys of Minneapolis, and so 
was she. I was vice-president of the Newsboys’ Home, 
and we needed something badly for that home, I have for- 
gotten now what it was. This young woman was the 
daughter of a wealthy railway magnate, standing by my 
table in my office she rested her fingers upon the table 
and said to me, “ Oh, Mr. Torrey, we must get that money 
for the newsboys. How shall we get it?” And as she 
said it one diamond alone that flashed on her finger would 
have met the need many times over. 

A very enthusiastic missionary advocate at a great 
world missionary meeting at Rochester some years ago, 
stretched out her hands to the audience in a pathetic ap- 
peal and said, “ Sisters, we must have money for foreign 
missions”; and as she said it more than seven thousand 
dollars worth of diamonds flashed on her fingers; and yet 


HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 219 


we wonder why God does not answer our prayers. Oh, 
there is no wonder at all about it; the explanation is sim- 
ple. It is found in the Word of God, it is because of our 
stinginess, our meanness, the smallness of our giving. 
Does not God say it in His Word, and is He not thun- 
dering it in our ears this morning, “ Whoso stoppeth his 
ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but 
shall not be heard”? 


VI. A Wronc TREATMENT OF HUSBAND oR WIFE 


There is one more hindrance to prayer of which we 
must speak. We find it plainly stated in I Peter 3:7, 
“ Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with your wives according 
to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife as unto the 
weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of 
life; that your prayers be not hindered.’ ‘That is plain 
enough, is it not? God here distinctly tells us that a 
wrong treatment of a wife by a husband (and vice versa, 
of course, a wrong treatment of a husband by a wife), 
hinders prayer; and it makes it impossible for God to 
hear the prayer of the husband or wife, as the case may 
be. Some of us are searching far and wide to discover 
what it is that hinders our prayer. We do not need to 
look so far away. Look into your home life. Husband, 
are you treating your wife as the Bible tells us a husband 
ought to treat his wife? Wives, are you treating your 
husbands as the Bible tells us wives ought to treat their 
husbands? If you are not, God will not hear your pray- 
ers. You may make all kinds of pretence of piety, you 
may be very faithful in attending religious services and 
co-operating in Christian work, but God’s eye is on your 
home life. The religion of our Lord Jesus Christ is a 
very homely religion, that is to say, it is a religion that 


220 HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 


enters right down into the practicalities of every-day home 
life. That is one reason why I rejoice in it and am glad 
that I am a Christian. Christianity magnifies the home. 
Our modern modes of living, even among believers, 
minifies the home, but God doesn’t. 

How many a man there is in our churches today who, 
if you heard him talk in prayer-meeting, or in the mis- 
sionary meeting, you would think he was a perfect saint 
of God; how soit and winning and earnest his words. 
And many a woman who hears him thinks, “ How pleas- 
ant it must be to live with a husband like that.” But in 
his home he is quite different, he is cross, harsh, domineer- 
ing, overbearing. He comes down to breakfast, and if by 
some mischance the beefsteak isn’t cooked just right, per- 
haps it is a little burnt, he flies into a towering passion 
and he says to his wife, “ Why can’t we have a decent 
beefsteak in this house? I buy the best and you are al- 
ways burning it. If I can’t get a good beefsteak at home 
I am going to the hotel,” and he rises from the table, hur- 
ries out of the room, takes his hat and starts for a res- 
taurant; and his poor broken-hearted wife sits down and 
begins to sob. And that man is actually shortening the 
life of his wife, and yet he wonders why God does not 
answer his prayers. Why, man, there is no wonder about 
it; it is because you are a brute, and God nowhere prom- 
ises to answer the prayers of brutes—but of men, real, 
hundred per cent, Christian men. 

I heard some years ago of a husband who did that very 
thing. He came to the breakfast table, the beefsteak was 
burned, he arose from the table cross and complaining, 
and stormed over the burnt beefsteak and said to his wife, 
“Why can’t we have a decent beefsteak in this house? 
If we can’t I am going to the hotel.” He dashed out of 





HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 221 


the room, took his hat and started for the hotel or some- 
where else. His wife, of course, sank down by the table, 
buried her face in her arms and began to cry and sob. 
They had a darling little boy, a sweet sympathetic boy, 
and he stole up beside his sobbing mother and his arms 
stole around her neck, and he cried with her and he sobbed 
out, “ Ma, I’m awfully sorry we married pa, ain’t you?” 
And there is many a man today who so acts in his home, 
though he professes to be an earnest Christian, that he 
makes his children sorry that they “married pa,” and yet 
he wonders why his prayers are not answered. 

But take another illustration on the other side. How 
many a professedly Christian woman today is sweet as a 
summer morn, as winsome and alluring as a June breeze 
when she is at the missionary society, or the sewing circle, 
or any other public gathering of the church; but how dif- 
ferent she is at home, cross, peevish, pettish, nagging. 
Her husband comes home tired from work. As they are 
about to sit down to the evening meal his wife says to 
him, “ John, did you mail that letter I gave you this morn- 
ing?”’ He looks aghast, puts his hand in his pocket, and 
finds the letter there, and begins to apologize and says, 
“Wife, I am so sorry I forgot to mail it.” And then 
she storms, “Of course you forgot to mail it; you al- 
ways forget to mail it; you never do what I ask you to 
do,” and thus she goes on and at last he, in anger and dis- 
gust, arises from the table, takes his hat and starts for 
the club, or the booze joint. And that woman wonders 
how such a good Christian woman as she could have a 
drunkard for her husband. I'll tell you, woman, it is 
because you made him so. God forbid that I should 
justify a man in being a frequenter of places like that 
under any circumstances, but it is a simple matter of fact 


222 HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 


that many a man is a frequenter of joints because his pro- 
fessedly Christian wife made his home so like hell that 
he felt he could not stay there. And yet that woman won- 
ders why her prayers are not answered. 

Take another illustration. How many a woman there 
is who a few years or even a few months ago, when a 
certain young man was coming around at night, stood 
before the glass and arrayed herself down to the smallest 
detail with the utmost care because “ Charlie” was com- _ 
ing tonight. If it had been anybody else but Charlie she 
would not have taken such care, but it was Charlie. But 
now the months have passed and they have been married, 
been married several months. If anyone, any other gen- 
tleman, 1s coming home to dinner but her husband, she 
is as careful as ever to make herself look attractive; but 
“no one is coming tonight but Charlie,’ and any old dress 
or collar or ribbon is good enough, for “it is only 
Charlie.” And yet she wonders why her prayers are not 
answered. Oh, men and women, if you and I are to ex- 
pect God to answer our prayers we must take our Chris- 
tianity into our home life, and we must be lovers always. 
I read a question some years ago in the Ladies’ Home 
Journal, the question was, “ How long should the honey- 
moon last?’’ I have forgotten what the answer given by 
the paper was, but I can tell you. Forever. Every year 
of married life should be more loving and tender and 
thoughtful than the one that went before, and it must be 
if we are to have power in prayer. 

Men and women, if we are to have power in prayer 
we must look very carefully into our home life. And 
there are other things in married life that hinder prayer ; 
other things that one cannot speak of in public, and yet 
how much they need to be spoken of in the day in which 


HINDRANCE TO PRAYER 223 


you and I are living. How many hideous abominations 
are covered up under the sacred name of marriage. Oh, 
men and women, if you and I are to have power in prayer 
we must spread our whole married life out before the all- 
seeing and all-searching and all-holy eye of God, and say 
to Him, “ Heavenly Father, if there is anything in my 
married life anywhere that is displeasing in Thy sight, 
show me what it is and I will put it away.” And then 
let us wait before God and let Him search our married 
life there in the white light of His Word, and the white 
light of the indwelling Spirit of God, and when He dis- 
closes any spot of any kind, as most likely He will, let us 
put it away. Then we shall have on open door of access 
to God, and our prayers will be no longer hindered but 
we will call to God and He will hear and give us what 
we seek from Him. 


Xx 
PREVAILING PRAYER AND REAL REVIVAL 


“Tt is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have 
made void thy law.’—Psa. 119: 126. 


vival. I have five texts: please listen to them 
very carefully. 
You will find my first text in Psalm 119: 126: 


QO UR subject is, Prevailing Prayer and Real Re- 


“Tt 1s time for thee, Lorn, to work: for they have made 
void thy law.” 


Our second text is Psalm 85:6: 


“Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may re- 
joice in thee?” 


Our third text is Acts 1:14; 2: 1-4, 41, 42: 


“ These all continued stedfastly with one accord im prayer 
and supplication . . . And when the day of Pentecost was 
fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And 
suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of the rushing 
of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were 
sitting . . . And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, 
and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave 
them utterance . . . Then they that gladly received his 
word were baptized: and the same day there were added 
unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued 
stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in 
breaking of bread, and in prayers.” 

224 


PREVAILING PRAYER 22 


ot 


Our fourth text is Ezek. 37:9, 10: 


“Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, proph- 
esy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord 
Gop; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe 
upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as He 
commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they 
lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great 
army.” 


Our fifth text is Luke 11:13: 


“Tf ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto 
your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father 
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him.” 


The great need of the Church today is a general, wide- 
spread, deep, thoroughgoing, genuine revival. That is also 
the greatest need of business, the greatest need of human 
society, the greatest need of human government, the great- 
est need of international relations, the greatest need of 
missions. In every department of life today—business, 
social relations, politics, international relations, education, 
church—we are facing the most menacing problems and 
the most important crises that have confronted the human 
race in centuries, if not in human history, since the in- 
carnation of God in the person of His Son Jesus Christ, 
and the birth of the Church, which was the outcome of 
that incarnation. The only hope of the Church 1s a great 
revival, and this is the only hope of human society. It 
is revival or revolution, revolution not only in Russia, but 
throughout the civilized world. It is a real and larger 
coming of the life of God into the Church and through the 
Church into human society as a whole, or else it is uni- 
versal Bolshevism: Bolshevism in church and state and 
school and home and everywhere, and consequent chaos 


226 PREVAILING PRAYER 


and midnight darkness on the earth, and utter and uni- 
versal dissolution and desolation and destruction. 

Of course, those of us who know our Bibles at all well 
know that the final revival, the revival to be followed by 
no reaction but a revival resulting in a universal and per- 
manent reign of righteousness on earth as well as in 
heaven, when God’s kingdom will come and His will be 
done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:10), and when 
“the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, 
as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11:9), will only come 
as the result of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to 
this earth to take the reins of government. The time of 
that coming is God’s concern and not ours (Acts 1:7), 
and is in his hands, and for that coming we should pray 
(Rev. 22:20) and long intensely (II Pet. 3:12, R. V.) 
and wait; but that does not mean that we should in the 
meantime sit down and let things go to the dogs, and 
rather glory in the fact that things are getting worse and 
worse all the time, and congratulate ourselves on what 
fine folks we are and what a tough crowd the rest of 
folks are in business and church and state. There is no 
Bible ground for being sure that the Lord may not tarry 
and that there may not be another revival, or, it may be, 
many revivals, before that glad day comes, and that most 
glorious of all revivals comes. 

If Wesley had so reasoned in his day of wide-spread 
spiritual and theological darkness, or Martin Luther in 
his day, or John Knox in his day, or Jonathan Edwards 
in his day, or Charles G. Finney in his day, what would 
have become of the Church, of the state, of human society 
and of the faith of God? 

Whether the Lord Jesus comes soon or whether He 
tarries, we need a revival, and need it badly, and if He 


PREVAILING PRAYER 227 


should come within a year and find us doing our best to’ 
bring about that greatly needed revival, He would say to 
us, “ Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou 
hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee 
ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy 
Lord” (Matt. 25:21), and blessed will that servant be, 
“whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing” 
(Matt. 24:46). But if, on the other hand, He should 
come in this year 1924 and find us sitting in idle medita- 
tion on the glorious truth of His Second Coming and con- 
gratulating ourselves that we were “not as the rest of 
men are” (the men who “ do not know the truth”), He 
would cut us asunder, and appoint us our portion with 
the rest of the hypocrites (Matt. 24:50, 51). 

So my first prayer is, “ Even so, come, Lord Jesus” 
(Rev. 22:20). But as I do not know and cannot know 
how soon that prayer will be answered (as God has seen 
fit to “set”? the times and the seasons “ within his own 
authority ”"—Acts 1:7), my second prayer is, and it is 
getting to be a more and more intense and insistent 
prayer, “ Lord, send a Revival,” and (as far as I am con- 
cerned) “let it begin in me.” 

What I have to say will come under three heads: 

First, What a Real Revival is, and what the Results 
of a Real Revival are. 

Second, The Need of a Real Revival. 

Third, The Relation of Persistent Prayer to a Real 
Revival. 


I. Wauat a Rear Revivat Is 


First, then, let us consider what a real Revival is and 
what its results are, 


228 PREVAILING PRAYER 


1. A real Revival ts a time of quickening or imparta- 
tion of life. That is exactly what the word “ Revival” 
means according to its etymology, and, also, according to 
its usage today, and that is exactly what the Hebrew word 
translated “revive” in.our second text, “ Wilt thou not 
revive us again” (Ps. 85:6) means, and it is so trans- 
lated in the Revised Version, “ Wilt thou not quicken us 
(i. e., impart life to us) again.”’ As God alone can give 
life, a Revival 1s a time when God visits His people, and, 
by the power of His Spirit, imparts new life to them, and 
through them imparts life to. sinners dead in trespasses 
and sins. We frequently have religious excitements and 
enthusiasms gotten up by the cunning methods and hyp- 
notic influence of the mere professional evangelist or 
“ revivalist,’ but these are not Revivals, and are not 
needed: they are a curse and not a blessing; they are the 
Devil’s imitations of a Revival. New Lire rrom Gop— 
that is a Revival. A general Revival is a time when this 
new life from God is not confined to scattered localities, 
but is general throughout Christendom and the earth. 

The reason why a general Revival is needed is that spir- 
itual dearth and desolation and death is general. It is 
not confined to any one country, though it may be more 
manifest in some countries than in others. It is found 
in our foreign mission fields as well as in our home fields. 
We have had, and are having, local Revivals. The life- 
giving Spirit of God has breathed upon this minister and 
that, this church and that, this community and that; but 
what we need, and sorely need, is a Revival that shall be 
wide-spread and general. 

2. Now, in order that we may have a more complete 
idea of what a Revival really is, let us look at the results 
of a Revival. 


PREVAILING PRAYER 229 


(1) The first results are in ministers of the Gospel. 

a. In times of Revival the mimster has a new love for 
souls. We ministers, as a rule, have no such love for 
souls as we ought to have, no such love for souls as our 
Lord Jesus had, no such love for souls as Paul had. But 
when God visits His people, the hearts of ministers are 
greatly burdened for the unsaved: they go out in great 
longing for the salvation of their fellow-men; they forget 
their ambition to preach great sermons, and their ambi- 
tions for fame; they long for one thing, and one thing 
only: to see men brought to Christ and thus saved. 

b. When true Revivals come, ministers get a new love 
for God’s Word and a new faith in God’s Word. They 
fling to the winds their doubts and their criticisms of the 
Bible and of the creeds, and go to preaching the Bible, 
and, especially, Christ crucified. Revivals make ministers 
who are loose in their doctrines orthodox. A genuine, 
wide-sweeping Revival would do more to get our minis- 
ters and theological professors right in their doctrine than 
all the heresy trials that were ever instituted. 

c. Revivals bring to ministers new liberty, new joy 
and new power in preaching. It is no week-long grind 
to prepare a sermon, and no nerve-consuming effort to 
preach it after it has been prepared. Preaching becomes 
a joy and a refreshment, and there is real power in it in 
times of Revival. 

(2) Now, let us look at the results of a Revival in 
Christians generally. The results of a Revival in Chris- 
tians generally are as marked as its results upon the 
ministry. 

a. In times of Revival, Christians come out from the 
world and live separated lives. Christians who have been 
dallying with the world, who have been playing cards and 


230 PREVAILING PRAYER 


dancing and going to the theatres and the movies, and 
indulging in similar unbecoming follies, give them up. 
They get a new spiritual vision, by which they see clearly 
that these things are incompatible with their increasing 
life and light. 

b. In times of Revival, Christians get a new spirit of 
prayer. Prayer-meetings are no longer a mere duty, but 
become the necessity of a hungry, importunate heart. 
Private prayer is followed with new zest. The voice of 
earnest prayer to God is heard day and night. People no 
longer ask, ‘“ Does God answer prayer?”’; they know He 
does, and besiege the throne of grace day and night. 

c. In times of Revival, Christians go to work for lost 
souls. They do not go to meetings simply to enjoy them- 
selves and get blest. They go to meetings to watch for 
souls and bring them to Christ. They talk to men on the 
street and in the stores and in their homes. The cross 
of Christ, salvation, heaven and hell become the subjects 
of constant conversation. Politics and the weather and 
Easter bonnets and the latest novels are forgotten. The 
things of God occupy the whole horizon of their thought. 

d. In times of Revival, Christians have new joy in 
the Lord Jesus. (Acts 2:46; Jno. 15:11.) Life is al- 
ways joy, and new life is new joy. Revival days are glad 
days, exceedingly glad days, “ days of Heaven on earth.” 
(Dentett: 21: 

e. In times of Revival, Christians get a new love for 
the Word of God: they want to study it day and night. 
Revivals are very bad for saloons and clubs and parties 
and theatres and movies, but they are good for book 
stores and Bible agencies. 

(3) Now let us look at the results of real Revival on 


PREVAILING PRAYER 231 


the unsaved world. Revivals have a most decided influ- 
ence on the unsaved world. 

a. First of all, Real Revivals bring a deep conviction 
of sm. Our Lord said that when the Spirit was come, 
He would “convict the world of sin” (Jno. 16:7, 8). 
Now, we have seen that a Revival is a coming of the Holy 
Spirit, and therefore there must be a new conviction of 
sin, and there always is. If you see something that men 
call a Revival and there is no conviction of sin, you may 
know at once that it is not a real Revival, but a bogus 
Revival. This is a sure mark of real Revival: deep con- 
viction of sin. 

b. Real Revivals also bring conversions and regenera- 
tions. When God refreshes His people, He always con- 
verts sinners also. The first result of Pentecost was new 
life and power to the one hundred and twenty disciples 
in the upper room; the second result was three thousand 
conversions in a single day. It is always so. I am con- 
stantly reading of Revivals here and there, where Chris- 
tians were greatly helped, but where there were no con- 
versions. I have my doubts about all such Revivals. If 
Christians are truly refreshed, they will get after the un- 
saved by prayer and testimony and persuasion and preach- 
ing and personal work, and there will be, there must be, 
conversions, real conversions, regenerated lives, lives com- 
pletely transformed: infidels becoming earnest believers in 
Jesus Christ, drunkards becoming sober, impure men and 
women becoming pure, thieves becoming honest men and 
industrious citizens, and lazy people getting down gladly 
to hard work. A true Revival always begins in the hearts 
of those who are already Christians, but it never ends 
there. It goes out to the unsaved and there are definite 
conversions. 


232 PREVAILING PRAYER 


II. Tue NEED or REVIVAL 


Now let us look at the need of a Revival at the present 
time. 

I think that the mere description of what a Revival is 
and what a Revival does, shows that it is needed, sorely 
needed, but let us look at some specific conditions that 
exist today that show the need of a Revival. If one 
dwells upon these conditions he is likely to be called a 
pessimist. If facing the facts is to be called a pessimist, 
I am willing to be called a pessimist. JI am in actual fact 
an optimist, an optimist of the optimists; but I am not 
a blind optimist, i. e., one who is an optimist by shutting 
his eyes to facts that are as clear as day. If in order to 
be an optimist, one must shut his eyes and call black white 
and error truth and sin righteousness and death life, I 
have no desire to be an optimist; but I am an optimist 
all the same. Pointing out the real conditions which are 
very bad will lead to better conditions. 

1. Look first at the ministry: 

(1) Many of us who are professedly orthodox min- 
isters are practically infidels. That may be pretty plain 
speech, but it is also indisputable fact. There is no essen- 
tial difference between the teachings of Tom Paine and 
Bob Ingersoll, on the one hand, and the teachings of some 
of our theological professors on the other. Theological 
professors are not so blunt and honest about it as Tom 
Paine and Bob Ingersoll were, they phrase it in more 
elegant and studied and honied sentences; but it means 
the same thing and produces the same damnable results. 
Much of the so-called “ New Learning” and “ Higher 
Criticism ” and “ Modernism ” is simply Tom Paine infi- 
delity sugar-coated and flavoured with a pretence of piety. 


PREVAILING PRAYER 233 


Quite a number of years ago, Prof. Howard Osgood, who 
was a real scholar and not a mere huckster of German 
infidelity, once read a statement of some positions held 
by the Modernists of his day, who were not essentially 
different from the Mcdernists of today, though not quite 
so bad as the Modernists of today, and he then asked if 
these positions as he read them did not fairly represent 
the scholarly criticism of the day, and the critics them- 
selves admitted that they did; just then he threw a bomb 
into the ranks of the “ Higher Critics’ by saying, “ I am 
reading verbatim from Tom Paine’s Age of Reason.” 

There is little new in “ The Higher Criticism,” nor in 
modernistic or liberal theology in general. Our future 
ministers oftentimes are being educated under infidel pro- 
fessors, and being, when they enter the college or theo- 
logical seminary, really only immature boys, they natu- 
rally come out infidels in many cases, and then go forth 
to poison the church. 

(2) Even when our ministers are orthodox, as, thank 
God, so large a number are today, nevertheless oftentimes 
they are not men of prayer. How many modern minis- 
ters, do you suppose, know what it means to “ agonize in 
prayer ” (Rom. 15: 30, Greek) and to wrestle in prayer, to 
spend a good share of a night in prayer? Of course, we 
do not know how many, but I do know that many do not. 

(3) Many of us who are ministers have no love for 
souls. How many of us preach because we must preach, 
preach because we feel that men everywhere are perish- 
ing, and by our preaching hope to save some? How many 
of us follow up our preaching as Paul did his, by “ be- 
seeching men everywhere” to be reconciled to God’? 
CUTAC Ot one) tnActs Zu. OL.) 

Perhaps we have said enough about ministers, but it is 


234 PREVAILING PRAYER 


evident that a Revival is needed for our sake, or some of 
us will have to stand before God overwhelmed with con- 
fusion in that awful day of reckoning that is surely com- 
ing CRomii4 212.) 

2. Let us now look at the Church: 

(1) Look at the doctrinal state of the Church today. 
It is surely bad enough, and apparently getting worse all 
the time. Very many of our Church members do not be- 
lieve in the whole Bible. To many, the book of Genesis 
is a myth, Jonah is an allegory, and even the miracles of 
the Son of God are questioned. They have been denied 
in a recent article in one of our most popular and widely 
circulated magazines by one of the most prominent Pres- 
byterian ministers in this country, a member of the Board 
of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church. With 
a great many, the doctrine of prayer is old-fashioned, and 
the work of the Holy Spirit is sneered at. We are told 
that conversion and regeneration are unnecessary, and 
hell is no longer believed in. Then look at the fads and 
errors that have sprung up in consequence of this loss of 
faith and creedal chaos: Christian Science, Unitarianism, 
Spiritualism, Universalism, Pastor Russellism, Babism, 
Theosophy, Metaphysical Healing, and a perfect pande- 
monium of “doctrines of devils.” 

(2) Look at the spiritual state of the Church. 

a. Worldliness is rampant, 1f not regnant, among 
church members. Many church members are just as 
eager as any in the rush to get rich. They use the methods 
of the world in the accumulation of wealth, and they hold 
on to it just as fast as any worldling when they get it. 

b. Prayerlessness abounds among church members on 
every hand. It is doubtful if one in ten of the church 
members of this country attend the prayer-meeting with 


PREVAILING PRAYER 235 


any regularity, and secret prayer takes very little of the 
time or attention of the average church member. Some- 
one has said that Christians, on an average, do not spend 
more than five minutes a day in secret prayer. Of course, 
none of us know whether that is true or not, but I fear 
that it is far nearer true than most of us suspect. 

c. Neglect of the Word of God goes hand in hand 
with neglect of prayer to God. Very many professed 
Christians spend twice as much time every day of their 
lives in wallowing through the mire of the daily papers 
as they do bathing in the cleansing laver of God’s Holy 
Word. How many Christians average an hour a day 
spent in Bible study? I will not ask those who do who 
are present here this morning to stand up: it might be 
embarrassing. 

d. Along with neglect of prayer and neglect of the 
Word of God goes a lack of generosity. The churches 
are rapidly increasing in wealth, but the treasuries of the 
missionary societies are empty. Evangelical church mem- 
bers do not average a dollar a year for foreign missions. 
It is simply appalling. 

e. Then, there is an increasing disregard for the Lord’s 
Day. “The First Day of the Week” has very largely 
become a day of worldly pleasure, instead of a day of holy 
service. The Sunday newspaper, with its inane twaddle 
and filthy scandal, takes the place of the Sunday School 
and church service, and even Y. W. C. A. secretaries take 
young girls off for week-ends in the mountains, or to other 
resorts, taking them away from church and Sunday 
School, and giving them instead a little semi-pious palaver 
for a small part of the day and no end of fun for the rest 
of the day. 

f. Church members mingle with the world in all forms 


236 PREVAILING PRAYER 


of questionable amusements. In many places, the young 
man or young woman who does not believe in the dance, 
with its rank immodesties, the card table, with its strong 
drift toward gambling, and the theatre and the movies, 
with their increasing appeal to lewdness, is counted an old 
fogy, a relic of a played-out Puritanism. 

Then, what a very small proportion of our membership 
has really entered into fellowship with Jesus Christ, with 
His burden of souls. But enough has been said of the 
Spiritual state of the Church. 

3. Now, look at the state of the world: 

(1) Note, first of all, how few conversions there are. 
Many churches last year lost more members than they 
gained. Here and there a church has a large number of 
accessions upon confession of faith, but these churches 
are rare exceptions; and even where there are many 
accessions, in how few cases are the conversions deep, 
thorough and satisfactory. 

(2) There is also, in most circles, an utter lack of 
deep conviction of sin; very seldom are men overwhelmed 
with a sense of their awful guilt in trampling under foot 
the Son of God. Sin is regarded as a mere “ misfortune ” 
or as “infirmity,” or even as “good in the making”; 
seldom is it regarded as an enormous wrong against a 
holy God, deserving of eternal damnation. ha 

(3) Unbelief is rampant. Many, very many, regard 
it as a mark of intellectual superiority to reject the Bible, 
and even faith in a personal God and a future life. In 
most cases they are all the more proud of this mark of 
intellectual superiority because it is the only mark of 
intellectual superiority that they possess. 

(4) Hand in hand with this wide-spread infidelity goes 
the grossest immorality, as has always been the case. 


PREVAILING PRAYER 237 


Infidelity and immorality are Siamese twins: they always 
exist and always grow and always fatten together. This 
prevailing immorality is found everywhere. Look at the 
legalized adultery that we call divorce. Much so-called 
marriage is little more than legalized prostitution. Men 
marry one wife and then another, and are still admitted 
into good society, and women do likewise. There are 
thousands of supposedly respectable men in America liv- 
ing with other men’s wives, and thousands of supposedly 
respectable women living with other women’s husbands. 

The increasing immorality is seen in the state of the 
theatre. The theatre, at its best, is bad enough, but now 
plays reeking with evil suggestion seem to rule the day, 
and the women who debauch themselves by appearing in 
such plays are defended in the newspapers and welcomed 
by supposedly respectable people. The movies are even 
viler than the theatre ever dared to be, and the rottenness 
of them is paraded before our eyes in the newspapers that 
we are urged to receive into our homes and let our chil- 
dren read. 

Much of our literature is rotten, but people will read 
books that a few years ago would have been in danger of 
bringing their publishers under the ban of the law against 
obscene literature; I say even supposedly decent people 
read these books because they are the rage. 

Art is frequently a mere covering for shameless inde- 
cency. Women are induced to cast all modesty and de- 
cency to the winds that the artist may perfect his art and 
defile his morals by employing them as “ models.” 

Greed for money has become a mania with both rich 
and poor. The multi-millionaire will often sell his soul 
and trample the rights of his fellow-men under foot in the 
mad hope of becoming a billionaire, and the labouring 


238 PREVAILING PRAYER 


man will often commit murder to increase the power of 
the Union and to keep up wages. Wars are waged and 
men shot down like dogs and gassed and subjected to all 
kinds of cruelty to improve commerce and to gain political 
prestige for unprincipled politicians who parade as states- 
Nien. 

The wild and almost incredible licentiousness of the day 
lifts tis serpent head everywhere. You see it in the news- 
papers, you see it on the billboards, you see it on the ad- 
vertisements of cigars, shoes, corsets, hose, patent medi- 
cines, and everything else. You see it on the streets at 
night. You see it just outside the church door. You find 
it not only in the awful cesspools set apart for it in the 
great cities, but it is crowding into our hotels and apart- 
ment houses and into the residential portions of our cities. 
Alas! now and then you find it, if you look sharply, in 
supposedly respectable homes, indeed it will be borne to 
your ears by the confessions of broken-hearted men and 
women. THE MORAL CONDITION OF THE WORLD IN OUR 
DAY IS DISGUSTING, REEKENING, SICKENING, APPALLING. 

WE NEED A REVIVAL, DEEP, WIDESPREAD, GENERAL, IN 
THE POWER OF THE Hoty Guost. It is either a general 
Revival or a general dissolution of the Church, the home 
and the state. A Revival, new life from God, is the cure, 
and the only cure, that will stem the awful tide of im- 
morality and unbelief. Mere argument will not do it, but 
a wind from Heaven, a new outpouring of the Holy 
Ghost, a true, God-sent Revival will. Infidelity, Higher 
Criticism, Liberalism, Modernism, Christian Science, Spir- 
itualism, Universalism, Theosophy, all will go down be- 
fore the outpouring of the Spirit of God. It was not dis- 
cussion and argument and reasoning, but the breath of 
God that relegated Tom Paine, Voltaire, Volney, and the 


PREVAILING PRAYER 239 


other triumphant infidels of old to the limbo of forget- 
fulness ; and we need a new breath from God to send the 
German destructive critics of our day, and the parrots 
that they have trained to occupy university chairs and 
evangelical pulpits in England and America, to keep them 
company. 


III]. THe Pruace oF PRAYER IN REVIVAL 


We now come to The Place of Prayer in Revival. This 
is the most important thing I have to say, and all that I 
have said thus far is simply a preparation for this and 
was intended to lead up to this, but what needs to be said 
can be said in a few words. 

The great need of today, as we have said, is a general 
Revival ; that is clear, and admits of no honest difference 
of opinion. WHAT, THEN, SHALL WE DO? Pray. Take 
up the Psalmist’s prayer, “ Wilt thou not revive us again: 
that thy people may rejoice in thee?’ Take up Ezekiel’s 
prayer, “Come from the four winds, O breath (i, e., 
breath of God), and breathe upon these slain, that they 
may live.” 

The first great Revival of Christian history had its 
origin, on the human side, in a ten days’ prayer-meeting. 
We read of that handful of disciples, “ These all con- 
tinued stedfastly with one accord in prayer and supplica- 
tion.” ‘The result of that prayer-meeting we read in the 
next chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, “ They were all 
filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other 
tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). 
Further on in the same chapter we read, “ And the same 
day there were added unto them about three thousand 
souls”? (Acts 2:41), and in the next verse we read how 
real and lasting the Revival proved, for these are the 


240 PREVAILING PRAYER 


words there recorded, “ And they continued stedfastly in 
the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of 
bread, and in prayers,” and in the last verse of the chap- 
ter we read, “ And the Lord added to the church daily 
those that were being saved.” The great Revival in Acts 
4 came in the same way. A time of great peril had come 
to the Church, that seemed to threaten the very existence 
of the Church. The two great leaders of the Church, 
Peter and John, had been arrested, imprisoned and threat- 
ened with death. What did the Church do? We read, 
“ And being let go, they went to their own company, and 
reported all that the chief priests and elders had said 
unto them. And when they heard that, they lifted up their 
voice to God with one accord.” (Acts 4:23, 24.) And 
down further we read, “ And when they had prayed, the 
place was shaken where they were assembled together ; 
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they 
spake the Word of God with boldness. And the multi- 
tude of them that believed were of one heart and of one 
soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things 
which he possessed was his own; but they had all things 
common. And with great power gave the apostles their 
witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great 
grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among 
them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands 
or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things 
that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: 
and distribution was made unto every man according as 
he had need.” (Acts 4: 31-35.) 

Every true Revival from that day to this has had tts 
earthly origin in prayer. “The Great Awakening ” under 
Jonathan Edwards in the eighteenth century began with 
his famous call to prayer, and he carried it forward by 


PREVAILING PRAYER 241 


prayer. It has been recorded of Jonathan Edwards that 
he “so laboured in prayer that he wore the hard wooden 
boards into grooves where his knees pressed so often and 
so long.” 

The marvelous work of grace among the North Ameri- 
can Indians under David Brainerd, Jonathan Edwards’ 
son-in-law, in 1743 and the following years, had its origin 
in the days and nights that Brainerd spent before God in 
prayer for an enduement of power from on high for this 
work. 

But we can go further back than that, and see how a 
Revival is always the result of prayer. In the early part 
of the seventeenth century there was a great religious 
awakening in Ulster, Ireland. The lands of the rebel 
chiefs, which had been forfeited to the British crown, 
were settled up by a class of colonists who for the most 
part were governed by a spirit of wild adventure. Real 
piety was rare. Seven ministers, five from Scotland and 
two from England, settled in that country, the earliest 
arrivals being in 1613. Of one of these ministers, named 
Blair, it is recorded by a contemporary, “ He spent many 
days and nights in prayer, alone and with others, and was 
vouchsafed great intimacy with God.” Mr. James Glen- 
denning, a man of very meager natural gifts, was a man 
similarly minded as regards prayer. The work began 
under this man Glendenning. The historian of the times 
says, “ He was a man who never would have been chosen 
by a wise assembly of ministers, nor sent to begin a refor- 
mation in this land. Yet this was the Lord’s choice to 
begin with him the admirable work of God which I men- 
tion on purpose that all may see how the glory is only the 
Lord’s in making a holy nation in this profane land, and 

that it was ‘not by might, nor by power, nor by man’s 


242 PREVAILING PRAYER 


wisdom, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.” By James 
Glendenning’s preaching at Oldstone multitudes of hear- 
ers felt in great anxiety and terror of conscience. They 
looked upon themselves as altogether lost and damned, 
and cried out, “ Men and brethren, what shall we do to 
be saved?” They were stricken into a swoon by the 
power of His Word. A dozen in one day were carried 
out of doors as dead. These were not women, but some 
of the boldest spirits of the neighbourhood, “some who 
had formerly feared not with their swords to put a whole 
market town into a fray.’’ Concerning one of them, the 
historian writes, “ 1 have heard one of them, then a mighty 
strong man, now a mighty Christian, say that his end in 
coming into church was to consult with his companions 
how to work some mischief.” 

This work spread throughout the whole country. By 
the year 1626 a monthly concert of prayer was held in 
Antrim. The work spread beyond the bounds of Down 
and Antrim to the churches of the neighbouring counties. 
So great became the religious interest that Christians 
would come thirty or forty miles to the communions, and 
continue from the time they came until they returned 
without wearying or making use of sleep. Many of them 
neither ate nor drank, and yet some of them professed 
that they “went away most fresh and vigourous, their 
souls so filled with the sense of God.” This Revival 
changed the whole character of northern Ireland. 

I have told you in other sermons of the great Revival, 
the marvelous work of God, in Ulster and other northern 
counties of Ireland in 1859 and 1860: that, too, came by 
prayer. About the spring of 1858 a work of power began 
to manifest itself. It spread from town to town and from 
county to county. The congregations became too large 


Ne 


PREVAILING PRAYER 243 


for the buildings, and the meetings were held in the open 
air, oftentimes attended by many thousands of people. 
Many hundreds of persons were frequently convicted of 
sin in a single meeting. In some places the criminal 
courts and jails were closed for lack of occupation. There 
were manifestations of the Holy Spirit’s convicting and 
regenerating power of a most remarkable character, 
clearly proving that the Holy Spirit is as ready to work 
today as in apostolic days, when ministers and Christians 
really believe in Him and begin to prepare the way by 
prayer for Him to work. 

It was in answer to the prayers of Wesley and his as- 
sociates that the Lord saved the church and the state in 
England in the early part of the eighteenth century. The 
little group met for prayer long before God so wonder- 
fully used them in preaching, and even a historian so ut- 
terly rationalistic as Lecky admits that it was the Wes- 
leyan Revival that saved England politically and commer- 
cially and every other way. Conditions were appalling 
when the group of believers whom God had aroused and 
endued with the spirit of supplication began to pray. One 
observer remarks of the English of that day that they 
were “‘ the most lifeless in Europe.” It is said that “ the 
greater part of the prominent statesmen of that time were 
unbelievers in any form of Christianity, and distinguished 
for the grossness and immorality of their lives,” and yet 
in answer to the prayers of a company of godly men, the 
prayers that would not take no for an answer, there came 
such a religious Revival that in a few years the whole 
character of English society was changed, and there came 
a period of great spiritual life and activity in the church. 

The wonderful Revival of 1857 and 1858 in this coun- 
try, which has been described as “the greatest revival 


244 PREVAILING PRAYER 


bf 


known since the days of the apostles,” was the result of 
prayer: first, the prayers of an obscure city missionary 
in New York, and then the prayers of those that he suc- 
ceeded in associating with him in his burden of a desire 
for a Revival. It has been said of America at the time 
immediately preceding this Revival, that its moral and 
spiritual degradation was such that “the whole country 
was on the very verge of a volcanic eruption of vice and 
political disaster ;” but prayer prevailed with God, the 
spirit of prayer spread, prayer-meetings were held in New 
York in churches and theatres, attended by thousands: 
prayer-meetings were held every hour of the day and 
night, and a chain of prayer was formed of two thousand 
miles in length, and there was such an outpouring of the 
Spirit of God that countless thousands were born again, 
and the influence of that great work crossed the Atlantic 
Ocean and led to the prayers in the north of Ireland that 
resulted in the great Ulster Revival of which we have 
spoken in an earlier chapter. 

The great awakening under Mr. Moody in England, 
Scotland and Ireland and America, and the results of 
which were felt in all the missionary countries of the earth 
and in the distant islands of the sea, had its origin, on the 
manward side, in prayer. Mr. Moody, though from the 
time of his conversion a most active worker, made no real 
impression until men and women began to cry to God. 
His going to England at all was in answer to the impor- 
tunate cries of a bed-ridden saint, and while the spirit of 
prayer continued, that wonderful work of God abode in 
strength, but in the course of time less and less was made 
of prayer, and the work of that mighty man of God fell 
off very perceptibly in power. 

Beyond a doubt, one of the great secrets of the un- 


PREVAILING PRAYER 245 


satisfactoriness and superficiality and unreality and tem- 
porary character of many of our modern, so-called Re- 
vivals is that so much dependence is put upon man’s 
machinery and so little upon God’s power, sought and 
obtained by the earnest, persistent, believing prayer that 
will not take no for an answer. We live in a day char- 
acterized by the multiplication of man’s machinery and 
the diminution of God’s power. The great cry of our day 
is work, work, work, organize, organize, organize, give us 
some new society, tell us some new methods, devise some 
new machinery; BUT THE GREAT NEED OF OUR DAY IS 
PRAYER, more prayer and better prayer. 

Prayer could work as marvelous results today as it 
ever could, if the church would only betake itself to pray- 
ing, real praying, prevailing prayer. There seem to be 
increasing signs that the church is awakening to that fact. 
Here and there God is laying upon individual ministers 
and churches a burden of prayer that they have never 
known before. Many are getting entirely disgusted with 
mere machinery and with man-made Revivals, and are 
learning to depend more upon God. Ministers are crying 
to God day and night for power. In a few places, per- 
haps many, churches or portions of churches are meeting 
together in the early morning hours and the late night 
hours crying to God for abundant rain. There are indi- 
cations of the coming of a mighty and wide-spread Revival. 

What is needed is a general Revival, but if we cannot 
have a general Revival, sweeping over the whole earth, 
we can have local Revivals and state Revivals and national 
Revivals. It is not necessary that the whole Church get 
to praying to begin with. Great Revivals always begin 
first in the hearts of a few men and women whom God 
arouses by His Spirit to believe in Him as a living God, 


246 PREVAILING PRAYER 


as a God who answers prayer, and upon whose heart He 
lays a burden from which no rest can be found except in 
importunate crying unto God. Oh, may He, by His 
Spirit, lay such a burden upon our hearts today. I believe 
He will. 


% 


PRAYER AND DEVOTIONAL 





S. D. GORDON Author of “Quiet Talks Series’ 


Five Laws That Govern Prayer 


Five Addresses delivered at the School of For- 
eign Missions Woman’s Missionary Society, M. E. 
Church, Lakeside, Ohio. $1.0 


*Dr. Gordon discusses in this volume in his inimitable 
way the five laws of prayer, such as the law of ne 
the law of abiding, the law of the use of Jesus’ name, 
the law of paces, and the law of persistence. No 
one can read this book without securing great benefit and 
having his faith strengthened.” —Presbyterian, 


MABEL NELSON THURSTON 


The Open Gate to Prayer 


With Foreword by Mrs. Helen B. Montgomery. 
Edition for Distribution. Paper, Special Net, 25c 
Comrade Series, boards, 60c 


Mrs. Montgomery says: ‘“‘I like this book; it seems to 
me another evidence of the revival of interest in the sub- 
ject of prayer...... I believe that it is welcome for the 
reason that it actually does show people the way of 
prayer, and trains them in it. The questionnaire at the 
close of each section is most helpful and stimulating.” 


CHARLES ARTHUR BOYD 
Minister of First Baptist Church, Marquette, Mich. 


The Singers of Judah’s Hills 


A Series of Story-Settings for Selected Psalms. 
Illustrated, $1.25 


“Mr. Boyd is in great demand for summer assemblies 
and other places where young people gather for religious 
instruction and inspiration. In this book he has exhibited 
his talent at its best. In each of the chapters one of 
the Psalms is coupled with an original story and so 
interwoven that the Psalm shines with new light and 
beauty.’’—The Baptist. 


L. DUNCAN BULKLEY, A.M., M.D. 


Daily Devotional Bible Readings 


Introduction by Henry van Dyke. 
A New Edition. $2.00 


Henry van Dyke says: “The book is meant to express 
and promote the spirit and practice of simple, thoughtful, 
helpful worship. I commend it warmly to those who do 
not wish to neglect in their homes the sweet and hal- 
lowed custom of united daily devotion.” 


EXPOSITORY AND DEVOTIONAL 





“G. CAMPBELL MORGAN, D.D. 
Searchlights from the Word 


Being 1,188 Sermon-Suggestions; One from 
Every Chapter in the Bible. $3.75 


The outlines are brief, pregnant with thought, un- 
marred by a single superfluous or redundant phrase, 
crammed with suggestive material suited to the use of 
ministers and other Christian Workers. They reveal 
throughout Dr. Morgan’s keen, analytical insight and as 
the titla specifically indicates, range through the entire 
Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation. 


BY ROBERT MAC GOWAN, D.D. 


The Song of Meditation 
With Introduction by James H. Snowden, ee 


A meditation, a poem and a prayer upon some of the 
eternal truths of religion and the Bible, which the author 
has divided into four great classifications, viz; God, Jesus, 
the Holy Spirit and Humanity. Dr. Mac CGowan’s medi- 
tations are upon subjects, upon which all the world is 
forever seeking light, and each accompanying verse and 
prayer is appropriate, suggestive and remarkably helpful. 





MODERN EVANGELISM 
CHARLES L. GOODELL, D.D, 


Executive Secretary Commission on Evangelism and 
Life Service, Federal Council of Churches 
Christ in America 


of 
Motives and Methods in Modern 


Evangelism 
$1.50 


The most comprehensive and practical volume Dr, 
Goodell has yet produced. The wide range of subjects, 
takes in every phase of the work, with which Dr. Goodell 
has been associated for a busy ard fruitful lifetime of 
service. As has _ been frequently said of the author’s 
work, “it fairly blazes with the passion of devoted zeal,’? 
and is an almost unconscious portrayal of the work and 
method he actually and successfully uses himself. 


J. C. MASSEE, D.D. 
Pastor of Tremont Temple, Boston, Mass. 


Evangelistic Sermons 
$1.50 


_. “Sound expositions of God’s truth, richly illuminated by 
illustrations. The apt and abundant illustrations, many 
flowing out of the preacher’s own rich experiences, are one 
of the attractive features of the book, All soul-winners 
and personal workers will enjoy this volume. Its close 
study will amply repay the preacher and fan anew the 
evangelistic flames of his ministry.’”’—Baptist Herald, 


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